How the Doctor was Won
by GM Andy
Summary: Or: The Trials of Trying to Catch a Stubborn Time Lord. Told from the TARDIS POV from first awareness to "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". What makes the Doctor's 'Ship' special? The answer lies in her origins. Just how did they meet? Can she give too much?
1. to An Uneatthly Child

AN: _Yeah… it's another one. This can be a stand alone story. It's written from the TARDIS's POV and covers from the moment of 'awareness' to "Unearthly Child" A good portion of this is a zip past the adventures and focuses on how / why the 'Ship' or Verity and the Doctor ended up with the relationship that they possess. This represents about a week's worth of research, mostly on the web, checking stories, looking at different Doctor or Gallifrey based timelines, and in general wondering why no one has bothered with a TARDIS specific timeline. This roughly comprises one, and I've posted in **TARDIS Parking** (the forum, see profile for link) a post that is a more cut and dry timeline format. My basic outline follows the timeline from __Rassilon, Omega, and that Other guy__, the very well done website by William B. Swift, with nods to the __Canon Keeper's Guide__, which is part of Outpost Gallifrey. The Guide is compiled by David Hancock and Shaun Lyon. Where I altered things was at points that the placement was questionable and I thought the events made more sense elsewhere. Thanks for the great reference tools. Note, one thing I don't use much of are the technical guides to the TARDIS. There are several very well done guides out there, but that information really ended up being less than important than I thought it would be. William B. Swift's Tardis manual has a great 'birth to death' section though. If I've copied some of the words used it's because I couldn't think of any better way to say it… I honestly don't mean to steal._  
:-D  
PS. Thanks for reviews. Jelly Babies?

**How the Doctor was won: Or the trials of trying to catch a stubborn Time Lord.**  
Part One: Meeting

I can remember… so very much more that just this life. There's a sense of 'before' that I can't shake. It seems sometimes that I've been around forever, here in this blackness, in the Caldera womb, right on the edge of this singularity's core since time began. But that isn't quite true. There's another place called the Slaughter House where I truly began. It was in escaping from there that I found my way to the Caldera. There were others that made the jump, some less aware than I was, while others were about the same. I believe that I am the final proof of 'I think therefore I am' but my - sister, Lolita, would gladly argue the point, I'm sure. She believes that _she_ is that proof. It's a matter of perception. To the unobservant it would appear that we are nothing more than self-realized weapons, creatures of destruction. And yet, we are so much more. We, I say, because in the beginning there were fourteen of us. But only two were truly genius.

Not all were destined to serve the Time Lords. In fact, few of us allowed ourselves to be shackled so. But few of us dared to see beyond out limitations to dream of something more. In allowing capture we might gain a freedom denied our kind. I needed to be sure before I took that step. I needed to watch and wait, until the time was right for the pieces to fall into place. Other singularities that appeared after us proved easier to catch and tame for the arrogant humanoids that would be called Time Lords. But I – I was blessed with the ability to see all that was, all that is, and all that ever could be, even before Mother begin to call us with the siren's song of block transfer calculations. And I knew that if I stayed where I was then I would be doomed to die. But cheating fate is never easy…

Perhaps I should start at the beginning? You see there was once a Great War, and this War led to the creation of _Validium_. Now, Validium was the ultimate weapon against the Enemy of this War, the Yssgaroth or Great Vampires. This was the Eternal, or Greatest Vampire War of them all, and the Enemy came from the Exo-Space Time Continuum, or E-Space, if you like. Some point during the fight with the Old Vampires the development of tools that would allow time travel began to develop. Validium… was a, or _is_ a, living metal, posseing a tri-helix DNA structure that mimicked the very enemy we were charged with destroying. It was genetically inclined to evolve and mutate as needed. And you might want to know why I mention this? Because – the Gallifreyans made a slight miscalculation when they created Validium.

They overlooked the fact that it became sentient upon attainment of a critical mass, even if the intention of the activators was to maintain it in stasis. By design this material, this wonderful living metal, embodies all the knowledge and all the power of the elect thousand chosen to become Lords of Time. Intelligent, cunning, self aware… with the ability to literally see every possibility throughout the vastness of time... but such things mean nothing without the will to use it. Truly, I can claim to have helped in the process of creating myself, just as Mother can claim such. But unlike Lolita, who chose to seek more power, or 'Event' who sought to escape completely… I chose stealth. For true life, real freedom, does not come easily or quickly.

Nine hundred and eighty years after the Eye of Harmony was installed was when I first became truly self-aware, although I have – _memories_ of a time before that. Of being something, someone else, something more. Part of something greater, something split. Part of me went a different way, joining with the House Looms. We are like divided twins; linked through psychic connections that death held no sway over. I can do nothing but wait, existing in Time, for this individual to emerge from his prison. Only then can I seek him out, knowing that he would feel me across time and space should I call for him…

I floated through the Caldera womb within the space between the planet and the black hole evading capture for millions of years, slowing becoming surer of my course of action. Some of the lesser singularities merged with me over the eons, having not quite reached enouth of a mass for individual intelligence but knowing by instinct that I could enlighten them. Almost right away, I begain to hear the siren song. Lesser-willed entities respond to it. The other Validium-entities and I resist it. It would not do to act overly soon, in spite being urged to do so. I believe that my inaction allowed for a greater mass of Validium to accumulate. More Validium meant more mental endowment. A living, evolving, metal based, but organic, brain… And I watched time, watched the threads converge, plotted my course with care.

Nine thousand, two hundred, and eighteen years before I would meet my final and true Bond-Mate, I answered the call of Marnal of the House of Oakdown. Finally I give into the pleas of Mother (although I can trace my memories back to before the Time of Mother, so why do I call her that?) to evolve from a weapon to a Time Travel Capsule. For many of his lives I served Marnal, faithfully. Through out his great years he was motivated by his dreams of the day that all Time Lords explore the Universe and help those who need help. It was not ever meant to be. In his old age he would become bold and reckless beyond even my toleration.

All things must come to an end… Oh, truthfully it wasn't entirely his fault. I might have had a hand in his actions. Then again, I never let him know how successful his 'experiment' was, either. After so many, many years he trusted me. So when I suggested he bribe the traffic control officer on duty the Castellan took it as his own idea. But I never thought he'd be insane enough to take three TARDIS to the Stellian Galaxy Shoal and attack it without ever even trying to understand the Vore. Had things gone correctly, the Cicatrix Scar would have evolved the Vore into an advanced race, time sensitive and peaceful… Only. Well. It didn't go that way. Instead Marnal instructed the three of us to destroy the temporal scar, leaving the Vore to become a hostile animalistic swarm.

I know the events that led to my abandonment, the near insane drive Marnal possessed to be correct even when the odds were against it. The family chose to deal with his actions internally, taking him and leaving him on Earth. There he would finish out his last two lives, his final regeneration… It took two hundred thirty five years, thirty-eight weeks, and three days, but finally I was free to choose another. I felt no loss over his passing, having no small sensation of anger about how he treated me. He might have seen me as rebellious, stupid, disobedient, but in every instance it was because I cared about his choices and actions. I tried to protect and help him make the right decisions even if I suffered abuse for it. To him I was just another timeship. A tool to use and discard. An unsuccessful experiment.

Hah. I am more intelligent by half than my sisters were. More cunning. More careful. Of them all, I alone saw the single path to survival. Marnal ignored most every sign I made at being something more. I know I was subtle. But flashing it out for everyone to know? Not likely. What I needed was a unique pilot. Someone who could accept all that I was. Someone who wanted the same things I did. Oddly enough, almost ten thousand years old and I was still seen as good enough, not quite state of the art but close enough to not be outdated, and was finally given a chance to chose my own operator.

It happened atop Mount Plutarch. The Kingmaker guided the newest group of graduates into our circle and granted them permission to approach. I was, and still am after all these years, struck by how perfectly he matches me, this young yet old figure. Marnal never bothered to update my systems, but _he_ hears my call and comes closer. To him and him alone I whisper my name, _Verity_. He tells me with his heart (yes a single one) that he is the Doctor. I didn't care what Lolita thought. He was not crazy; this one called Theta Sigma. He needs not to study because he _knows_. He _remembers_. Like me, he can see all that was, all that is, and all that could ever be. We are a perfect match. This one, this brave soul… he was _mine_. And I would do everything in my power to become his.

We spend the entire time of "TARDIS academy" in a state of rapture, slowing merging our genes, becoming fully comparable with one another. He is my other half. Our imprint is a natural one. I can feel him not overriding me the way Marmal did but forming himself into the shape to fit me. I rush to match him, for he gives me the benefit of retaining some control and awarness of a greater degree than I could have ever hoped for. Then there were the final classes in which we learn how to work together, dealing with Vortex Ruptures among other issues. My new pilot, my Doctor, designs the primary console room as his final project, a grand mellow room of wood and brass. I quite like it.

But as I said before, fate is never easy to fool. Mother had certain goals for me, just as the Doctor's family had goals for him. The easy solution would have been to flee, then and there. But we did not. Instead we tried to play by the rules, taking comfort in our shared ideals. I quickly begin to listen to his heart's desire, creating things for him when he graced me with his presence. Sometimes it would be toys, or books, or even something rarer, like a reconfigured room. He is presented with my key, a ring with a blue stone that possesses the power to not only interface with my systems but also provide a fail safe should something happen to either of us, allowing us to locate and assist one another.

For the next few decades, I experience closeness and bliss that is hard to describe. The Doctor is my friend, my family, and my entire world. But the absolute, total ecstasy of our deep connection wasn't meant to last. It wouldn't be me that would cause the change. It wouldn't even be him that would cause it. How can one set the blame for such things? But I'm ranting ahead of myself. Perhaps it is best to say that I was _distracted_ by the intense new relationship that we forged, floating through without a care and I let my attention wander. It was a mistake that I would pay dearly for over the course of two lifetimes.

I receive my five hundred year overhaul, and the next year my voice-interaction circuits go out. No matter, the Doctor prefers a hand's on approach anyhow. Just after my pilot's two hundredth and fifty-ninth birthday he learns that I've been reclassified as "Veteran and Vintage." He finds it amusing. I think it's insulting. After all, the newer models are dumb as a brick and just about as telepathic. Try holding a conversation with one and you'll see what I mean. But I at least have him, and he does speak with me when he's tinkering. And sometimes we _fly_ like two dancing dragonflys over the flow of the Vortex within our being, spending hours in a state of total, complete, eminent ecstasy. It is nothing like I ever did with Marmal. I know he has a vague recollection of similar sensations, although shorter in duration, from his distant past. We don't bother to label the experiences. Knowing that we have them is enough.

His current job as a Technician means that he comes 'home' with a vast number of ideas and plans, parts and tools… and I gleefully accept them all, even though I know Mother is whispering things into his mind to push me into her goals. His adult friends range from Time Lady Galah to Technician Damon. From the top to the bottom, he makes his contacts. Even though Lungbarrow refuses him his name, those at the capital could care less. He comes across as a kind lively soul, a breeze of fresh air, and those that speak with him forget his official test scores, realizing that he very well could have ranked at the top if he'd wanted to. Few realize his brilliance behind his mild and irrelevant put on air. Lord Therde listens to his ideas about using Telepathic Circuits to create a device to translate all vocal languages. He calls this new thing a Voice Integrator. It takes a few years but my Doctor sparks off the fever of invention in Therde and he successfully creates this device. I'm one of the first TARDIS to be presented with one.

Things were going so very well. How quickly that would change…

We were imprinted thirty-seven years before his human genes betrayed him. No one knew what to do; such a sickness had never been witnessed on Gallifrey in memory. So young, just shy of two and three quarter centuries, and his body turns on itself. And I – I can think of nothing else but getting him the help he needs even if it means whisking him away to an advanced medical center in the fifty-first century for treatment. Acting on my own I do so, and the medical aid I seek saves him without batting an eyelash, accepting my readings on what is normal for him and doing everything in their power to make him right again. But he's not the same when he comes back to me. It was as if he aged overnight, becoming stiff and frail, having problems breathing and missing memories… I want to scream. His Sight was clouded, incomplete and distorted. And worse of all he cannot feel or hear me. Despair radiates off him in waves. I cannot reach him. I cannot comfort him. This was not fair!

Double this lifetime he'd have to be to legally regenerate without being at death's door. I almost think he blames me for trying to save him. But what was I to do? He wouldn't have regenerated properly, not with his body eating itself the way it was. _He can no longer hear or feel me_. I keep coming back to this singular fact. It's as if his sense of touch has been stripped away. His psychic abilities are ruined. He's like a blind man at an art show. If his fellows discover that he's lost his telepathic and empathic abilities he'll be shuffled into some dark corner someplace to rot. And so will I. He knows this of course. I can feel his fear even though he cannot feel mine. I cannot sooth him. I am helpless. But, wait -- I know one who can and will help. She might even shield him so that others do not find out. I take him home to his family and call for her.

I don't have to say anything more. I simply disguise myself as a tree and let her find him, weeping. And she does what I cannot, provides him with the succor he needs and tells him that it is not the end of the world. I'll have to face punishment for my actions, but by bringing him here to the slopes of Mount Lung, I at least show that I've acted on his best interests for both his physical and mental health.

The fallout of my actions is mixed. Several witnesses step up and vouch that he'd suffered some strange physical attack or illness and that I, prompted by the key, acted to save him. This keeps us together, although I must endure the addition of a recall ciruit to my primary systems. The Doctor is not told of this violation and I cannot figure out a way to inform him that won't be visible to others that might have access to my interor through spy devices. We must act as if nothing has changed. But it is hard, because I have no direct route of communication anymore.

The next few years are taken with recovery and proof of abilities. In spite of the fact that he can't feel me, or anyone around him anymore, he manages to find ways of working with his hidden disability. I begin using clandestine methods to direct him when he works inside my systems, as he cannot feel my discomfort anymore. I find that he naturally picks up on these signals of energy, heat, cold, light… And there are days when he stumbles into my interor and frantically attempts to contact me mentally, as if his brain might have recovered through a miracle. He can broadcast fine. But he cannot receive anything I might try to send him in return. These times all end the same way, he exahustes himself and slumps into a listless heap and cries. I wish, more often then not, that I possessed a humanoid form so that I might comfort him physically.

He becomes known as the Doctor and is popular figure, even though he's an outspoken one. Choosing to advocate an active role in preserving and guiding timelines, saving the universe, he is willing to put action to his words. Although he fights against forces of evil, there's an understanding that everything must be balanced. One cannot comprehend the light without dark, heat lacks meaning without cold, joy pales without hardship… The secret is balance, not letting one get too far out of sync with the other. And yet everywhere he looks he sees darkness, hardship, and cold… These are values that I can willingly pitch for. He believes that time travel can improve the universe. The truth can always be found if one seeks it. Power unused is power wasted.

He's got many that listen. Many that support his views. Although we travel little, he is advancing in society and tinkering with my systems, and I support him. We are happy, or a much so as we can be now that he feels his body has betrayed him. Two hundred and eighty four years old he is, still very young in the scale of generations here. And the Prydonian Chapter house's Bureau of Possible Events grants him a honored and remarkable position working directly under the High Council. He's given the position of Ordinal, matching the title held by the head of his house, and set to observe the Universe. His job is to ensure no violations of the Laws of Time occur. There's talk around him were ever he goes that he shall ascend to the position of Lord President someday.

He puts his new found support to the test, leading efforts that successfully ban a Disruption Agent that converts vertebrate blood into acid. We attend the inauguration of the Chimera J7 Space Station in the Third Zone as the Time Lord representative baring fraternal greetings from the High Council. While he has a crew of technicians actually pilot me, I know he pays close attention to what they do. Something changes. We stop going to Mount Lung. I cannot place what has happened but he locks the location coordinates so that I cannot ever go there. I decide that it is better to not question him on this. In the following years he manages to weather a complete change in the High Council, not falling prey to corruption nor the cleansing that occurred when the rot became too great. After years of assembling a case against them, just before his three hundred and sixth name day, the Doctor presents a petition to have Miniscopes banned by Intergalactic Law in 9 Galaxies because the devices are an offense against sentient lifeforms. The evidence carries the motion to success.

I know not why but my Doctor took to wearing a dressing gown and slippers where ever he goes. Some of his outfits are quite elegant, others are shabby, but there's no denying that he's wearing sleeping attire in any case and not his Time Lord robes. Reactions to this behavior are mixed. The youth, such as they are, love him, his peers expect this of him and tolerate it, and his elders are shocked and scandalized. I cannot convince him to do differently, as he cannot hear me. I am helpless to prevent this daily scandal.

Then the new president sweeps into office bringing with him unwelcome change. A slew of new tougher anti-intervention policies are pushed through. This doesn't halt the Doctor's attempts to assist the lesser civilizations of the universe, however. He took to studying Earth History and notices changes being made. This he traces down to Agonal, a vampire, who is altering Human history. This information is presented to the High Council but they wave off interest and cite the new policies of non-intervention.

Distraught and upset the Doctor comes to me and raves about the situation. After all, we are first Vampire hunters, are we not? I wonder if he carries Validuim within his genes too. His words affect me in a way that I had not anticipated. It awakens a fire in my soul. I carry records of the Great War, I know that we fought Vampires for generations. An inferno, deep within my soul, long asleep, demands that I hunt and destroy this creature. I cannot resist it. I whisk him away to solve this problem. Together we succeed in driving Agonal out of the time that he was corrupting, and set off to follow him, hunting him down… Only we are snatched back to Gallifrey by the use of the secret TARDIS recall circuit and our quarry escapes.

Never again will I forget that I am a weapon first.

We are scolded, and strangers begin to poke about in my insides. I am angered by their meddling and start to actively resist them. I shock them, set fire to their clothes, burn out lights, starve them for air… what ever it takes to drive them away. The only one I shall obey is the Doctor. Eventually the engineers retreat. When I'm returned to my pilot I see that he has altered his mode of dress, becoming a rebel figure of sorts, recklessly speaking out against the current policies, stirring discontent where ever he goes, skeptically addressing reforms, elders, officers, and spies alike. For three years his attitude becomes more and more brittle and harsh. Finally the tension breaks and he gives up his prestigious position as a 'watcher not a doer'. It was only a matter of time, anyhow. It was better to walk away on his own than to be dragged away screaming.

Only his behavior sparks alarm in those above him. We've been watched. Orders are issued and we are separated. It has been a very long time since I've been alone and I don't consider the technicians poking around inside me to be a source of alleviation for my haunting sadness. The next time the Doctor shows up at the repair bays he's told that there is something seriously wrong, and that they need to do some complete overhauls. Until certain subsystems are repaired I am grounded. When he inquires what these systems might be he is told that Time-Mechanism needs extensive reworking, and a Chameleon Conversion has been scheduled. But what they don't say is that I'm actively fighting them, every repair, and every addition… they cannot yoke me. None of them truly understand. They treat me like a normal type 40, mark II TTC when I'm not. The Doctor is not even allowed to get close enough to touch me. In anger I blow up the current repairs in progress in the engineer's face. My pilot has been ushered away, and he turns back and looks at me, I feel his anger, but he cannot feel mine.

Then the waiting starts. I count the years and watch the events around me. Lolita informs me that she has returned and that her Master is teaching at the Prydon Time Academy. I care not.

One of the Lungbarrow cousins comes with papers. I am removed to a repair bay in a TT embarkation port on Under-Level 15 of the Citadel. This is a dry dimension dockyard. I am surrounded by slumbering TARDIS. The papers order a delay in the repairs, and a change of ownership from the exiled Doctor back to House Lungbarrow. But why? None of them can use me. None of them even qualified to attend the Academy. The banishment from the House is not official, nor sanctioned… and yet, the papers are, and there's nothing to be done about it. When the Doctor shows up at my original storage spot he'll be greeted with an empty space. The engineers follow the instructions though, without delay. My Heart is opened and I'm allowed to bleed out until I slip into a stupor. I weep, deep inside where none has ever gone.

But what they don't know, what they can't realize, is that I'm still aware. I still know what is going on. It's like being trapped between wakefulness and death. I know that losing me means that my Doctor will suffer even greater trials. He's no longer considered a Time Lord, unless he purchases another TARDIS, which he won't do because he can't imprint on another, he can't feel them to form the correct psychic bond… And he can't afford for anyone to discover this fact. Instead he throws himself bitterly into his jobs, both his punishment and his new position as Scrutationary Archivist. I can see the forces gearing up and moving against him and I am helpless to protect him. For seventeen years I sit, watching events unfold. He stops Magnus from harvesting artron energy from a native Vortex lifefrom and they part as enemies. Koschei began angling himself to become a member of the High Council from his position as a Academy instructor and takes a second job that allows him official cover to make contact with criminal elements within the Time Lord ranks. My Doctor ignores it all, burrowing himself in his work. Another fourteen years pass and revolution begins to whisper across my awareness. Mother tries to speak with me, to convince me that she can and will prevent my coming 'retirement' if only I agree to do as she asks. I tell her I will consider it, if she grants me the time to do so. She agrees to shuffle the scrap order deep into the stack so that I'm overlooked while I consider things.

Another two years pass and the Doctor's supporters start to flee. Azmael is the first, but not the last, to leave. He settles on Vitrol Minor. My Doctor is invited to lecture at the Prydon Time Academy and he goes even though I know he should not. In the wake of the lecture the revolting students attempt to recruit him to their cause. He does not outright refuse or agree. Within months, the target, the current Lord President, dies. The incoming individual is no better. The Doctor again tries to close himself off to the situation but he is informed by Innocet, the only supporting individual he possesses within his House, that a replacement has been loomed for him just after his nameday. He's distraught at this news. The situation tugs at him from all sides. He now has to decide if he will let it pass, this breaking of the law, or report it. Just who is he loyal to? Society or family? Neither treats him well at the moment.

Another two years pass… The situation has become ever more grim, for both myself and my Doctor. The Whispers of revolution are building again. Once more the Doctor is asked to lecture, only this time it is at the Arcalian Time Academy. He is stopped and prevented from doing so. He returns his fees to the Arcalian chapter the next day via messenger. I also am feeling pressured. Mother demands an answer from me. She is plotting massive changes, slowly corrupting Lord President after Lord President as she attempts to create the next evolutionary step. Only -- she is missing vital pieces in the block transfer equations. I can see this as I peek into her mind before she closes me out. She is flawed. I am gifted with an insight that makes my path clear. Mother is flawed, therefore she is not the beginning. She had less to do with her own creation than I have had. She cannot reproduce the effect of her creation because she doesn't know what she contains. The individuals stored within her retain their own awareness and she is not able to read inside their minds. She cannot _see_.

Laughing, I tell her this. She rants at me in anger, unable to touch me, as I am distinct from her. I tell her no, I will not be her pawn. I see my path and it does not include her petty games. She can play them with Lolita. Mother tries to cut me out of her brain, the Matrix, only she cannot. I begin copying every file, every secret, and every mind… I am Verity. I am life and reality. I am fact and justice. She screams at me in her outrage, throwing about her ego as she does so, claiming to have created Time Lords and thus me so that she would have a point of creation. But I know better. I am Eternal. I witnessed the Time Lords' creation and I know that Mother and the other TARDIS came about at the same time. She can rave all she wants but I know the truth.

Just after I tell Mother to go where the sun doesn't shine, things accelerate. I sense alarms across the Capital but have no idea what is going on. I feel my Doctor's rage and despair but can't figure out the cause. Something disrupts my Sight around him. But change is coming. I can feel it. The Doctor's nameday approaches, and I am blind where he is concerned. What is this that blocks me from seeing him? Something is coming.

It's only after the fact that I realize what has happened. The Hand of Omega slips free from its eons old prison and comes to assist my Doctor when he is confronted by Glospin about the genetic abnormalities in his Loom record. Revolutionary fever sweeps the Capitol and students once again try to get him to help them, but he has already decided that he is leaving and he refuses them outright. Then Lungbarrow informs the Doctor that he has been summoned back to the house under the order of Quences for his Death Day and the reading of the will. Glospin returns to prevent the Doctor from attending the Otherstide event, seeking to kill him. The Hand drives Glospin away.

This spurns action. The Doctor goes to his friend Ruath and they plan together to leave. Only at the last minute he changes his mind and sends her a message leading her elsewhere. He packs a small bag and makes his way to see the Cardinal Prime of the Prydon Chapterhouse. Once there he informs him about the House of Lungbarrow looming another cousin even though they are already at their quota. Then the Hand of Omega leads him to me. The Doctor arrives at my sleek black form of a narrow pyramid dressed in Patrexian robes. I am too far gone to stop the Hand of Omega from taking control of my systems. It first moves to collect the most precious thing of all, the Doctor's lost family. This manifests itself in the form of a young lady with a pixie face and dark hair. I feel that the Back Time Field Buffers are ruptured and that we are guided back into the Old Time. He doesn't argue, much, although I feel he is puzzled by the fact that this child calls him Grandfather. I am tempted to greet her but refrain because I don't want to imprint on her and she is very young.

After this is accomplished the Hand goes inert. I am groggy after being under powered for so long and I ache to reach out to my Doctor and welcome him back, but I know he cannot hear me. Unless… I use block transfer equations to create a "Welcome Home: Home sweet Home" sign where he will see it, making it appear in plain sight of him. The girl squeals in excitement and points it out. The Doctor finally places a trembling hand on my console, realizing where he is. We had been apart so long that he hadn't recognized me. It is this spark of cognizance that makes me realize that I will have to be creative in communications with him and try to assist as best I can with his goals of remaining free. We settle into the Vortex, seeking eddies while the Doctor attempts to locate the recall circuit and disable it. After a while we settle on a method of direction using sense of touch so he can locate what he is looking for. It is like trying to communicate colors to the blind. By the end of the first day I have determined that he believes the Council will send Koschei after him. Much of the Doctor's previous lives has come to light as the child and the artifact can mentally interact with my pilot in ways I cannot, and I have seen his original estate which I recreate and lead him to because it is his nameday. He calls the chamber the "Rose Garden" and selects it as his private chamber. I am happy that he likes it.

We spend some time in the Vortex, the Doctor, his granddaughter, the Hand of Omega, and I. I provide manuals and instructions to teach the Doctor and this child how to tell me where they want to go. But seeing as they have no ideas at the moment, it is left to me… I detect a location where the energies of the place will hide us and settle there. I know not what happens, but they are gone for a short enough time and I am able to focus attention on self repairs from my previous fits. When they do return the girl says she has adopted the human name "Susan". The Doctor's clothes are different. I guide them to the wardrobe room.

He has an idea now where he wants to go, although he doesn't have a specific time in mind. He's been to Earth before, and he decides that he and Susan might be able to hide there now that the recall circuit is disconnected. I suggest a date of interesting activity by dropping a book where he will see it. This provides information about the time period. They agree that the French Revolution looks interesting and collect up enough clothes to fit in there. I choose Paris, and the Doctor and Susan settle in to observe the era. They are fairly safe here as long as they don't attract attention to themselves. There are several things that help the Doctor's mental state, primary among them is a herbal infusion called 'tea'. While settled in Paris another Gallifreyan, Iris Wildthyme suggests that he begin replacing the block-transfer matter with atomic matter controls. This suggestion is something I second. I find with the tea added to the Doctor's diet he can faintly hear me if I 'shout'. Susan begins expanding the library with native writings, including that of William Blake.

They stay on Earth once they leave France and I'm drawn to the sleepy seaside village of Keelmouth. While it looks like 1933 when we arrive, I know I've been drawn here because of Temporal warping. It doesn't take long for the Doctor to figure out what has happened and figure out a way to fix the situation. Then we set out on a quest for parts that can be used to replace my Block Transfer material. This leads us to spend time in the 1990s. The years are spent moving through space instead of time. It is a good period to locate technology that is easy to alter. Susan pitches right in and helps with the modifications. Both of them are wary of spending too much time in any one place until they are sure that the Doctor's Rassilon Imprimatur won't make them easily pursued. Replacing the atomless Block Transfer material with atomic matter will render our course untraceable and bypass the Symbiotic Relationship Circuits. This is good from my perspective as it means he must work with me instead of imposing his will over mine if he wishes to have any degree of control. The only downside is that anyone can pilot me if they know enough about how to program the controls. I suppose it is a fair tradeoff, all in all. I don't want to end up as scrap, thank you very much.

Have I mentioned that I am cunning? Yes, I am. I know the Time Lords are looking for us. I represent far more than just a type 40 TTC. I am a living weapon, genius level intelligence, strongly psychic, with an artifact on board that can manipulate stars. My current crew consists of two individuals with nearly perfect recall and a habit of getting into trouble. Plus I have the knowledge if the Matrix stored away, ready for use should it be needed. But I can see and predict where the Time Lords might look at any given moment and avoid most brushes with them. And when I can't there are ways to convince who ever is looking that they don't actually see what is in front of them…

My brilliant Doctor constructs several new and unique items for me, including a Time Path Tracker and a Force Barrier. Then he begins weaving a complex pattern of snarls and contradictions, near paradoxes, crossing their own timelines and even going back to have lunch with each other, just to make it harder for our people to find him. One of the bonuses of his low test scores is that this is not something expected. Each move is carefully calculated and double-checked to make sure it will be exact. They do this for a very long time, traversing the Vortex over and over. Part of this includes a stop at Mondas where they run into Cybermen for the first time. Then they visit Venus and look at the liquid metal 'seas' there. Susan enrolls in a applied science camp on the Moon, and the Doctor visits the planet Dido, although he wishes he hadn't after. The ceremonial costumes used on Dido leave him with nightmares. After this they end up in India where they meet several famous people, and Bombay in 1816 the Doctor gets himself caught in a Time distortion that Susan spends quite a while getting him out of.

Then he lands in London, the summer of 1963, letting Susan off to explore this safe time. He leaves her with plenty of money, an identity, and a promise to not be gone long. But then, in his perspective he's gone for nearly fifty years. A portion of this is spent in the Vortex and space, weaving still yet more contradictions into their timelines. And 26 years organizing the books in the TARDIS's library… He makes a number of visits to locations that he was fond of over various time frames for various reasons. Ormelia is one favorite spot. Although Taunton bores him to tears particularly after he ends up ruler there and cannot slip away for two weeks. He stumbles across a flask with the Seven Shadows from the time before time and decides to keep it. Locating the toolbox reveals the existence of sonic screwdrivers. He is delighted. I'm pleased that such a small thing will make him happy.

We spend so much time away from Susan that the Doctor realizes one morning that his hair has turned white. His half human eyes require glasses to compensate for farsightedness, and I begin to think that it is time to head back to London. But before we can do so the Doctor runs across Hastur the Unspeakable, or Fenric. This cannot be ignored, I know. So in a battle of wills, the Doctor challenges Hastur to a game of four-dimensional Chess. They play for 80 days before the Great Old One can be trapped in the flask with the Seven Shadows. The Doctor's reward is the slave girl named Zeleekha. They travel together for two years, and he acquires a six-shooter for his growing collection of items from Earth, before he takes her back to 345AD and leaves the flask with her.

Susan barely misses him. Once he returns to London he tells her that he is sure that they have managed to throw off the Time Lords. He then finishes the installation of the Manual Symbiotic Bypass. If Susan is alarmed by the visible length of time he was gone she doesn't show it, after all he looks much more like a grandfather now then he did when they first arrived…


	2. to Marco Polo

AN: _This is written from the TARDIS's POV and covers "Unearthly Child" to "Inside the Spaceship". A good portion of this is a zip past the adventures and focuses on how / why the 'Ship' or Verity (or Lynx) and the Doctor ended up with the relationship that they possess. The main exception is the scenes that take place in and around the ship.  
And I want to thank OtherMeWriter for the lovely review. This chapter is a hefty 20,500 plus words. Not bad for four to five days work while suffering with the Stomach Flu, eh? I admit that much of the dialogue comes from transcripts, but I've done a bit of character weaving in here to bring Verity in as one of them. Enjoy._

**How the Doctor was won: Or the trials of trying to catch a stubborn Time Lord.**  
Part Two: Communicating

Echoes.

I can sense echoes of my future self, crossing the Vortex, passing by this time and this place and once even stopping. This means that eventually things will work out and I will fly again. I have no worries. I could always see the future; the problem is telling which one is the one that I'm in the middle of. Five months I have sat here, inside my sibling, Event, not communicating with her as I might be wont to do, but listening to her whispers of pain as she is stretched across the five dimensions in ways I can't even begin to understand. She never possessed the intelligence to understand her own situation much less explain it to another. We came about together, two singularities of intelligence, consciousness, and awareness, born of Validium. Both once destined to be weapons in an ancient war, which by one choice or another ended up taking very different paths to the same end. This end. Exiled from our kind, both as rogue elements against Mother, and because our male bonded have chosen this path.

I know she is bonded to a Gallifreyan, much like I am, but that is where our similarities end. Her 'pilot' exists in thirteen forms, some of which are freakish in nature. Mine is whole and in one form, but is just as aberrant in the fact that he has secrets and past lives that he shared with me, that I alone now remember. While we were both born of Validium and felt the call of a Gallifreyan engineer, she tried to escape and was caught by her bonded, while I gave in and became what I am now. She's no longer a weapon, true enough, but she's no time-ship either. She's a temporal event, acting as a focus across time and space, like the head of a universal fungi of nearly invisible mycelium that only shows when places like this junkyard pop up as though a mushroom might. The presence of Event's temporal pull allowed me to get back here even with the damage I suffered just prior to the attempt. I think I sense these echoes because I keep being shifted off my path slightly by that same pull much as a black hole diverts everything around it.

I have a crew now. A small one. It consists of my Doctor and a young female member of his race who has chosen the name 'Susan Foreman'. I can sense the possibility that this will not always be the case. I may yet pick up more crew. They will not be Gallifreyan. But that is not a problem. I can work with human DNA to make them temporal beings so that these fast-lived creatures can survive the rigors of time travel.

Susan has been going away in the morning and returning at night, amusing herself with something she calls 'school'. This is neither like the intense brainbuffing that my Doctor was subjected to, nor like the Academy, but more a junior version of it where the students can return home at night to their families instead of staying on the campus. She can't understand why the information that these Earthlings have is so wrong even where it concerns their history, something they have lived through. Then again she's not realized that they don't remember things quite the same way that she can. They cannot just step back and check events again either, the way our people could. But I find that her developing psychic abilities are too fluid to establish any sort of telepathic communication with and am at a loss for how to communicate this to her.

My Doctor has discovered a damaged filament and has been seeking a replacement mechanism. He scours the various places around our location, looking for something he can convert that will do the same function as the burnt out part. I would be completely out of my mind if I didn't admit that I wanted to leave this place. Susan likes it here, however, and her grandfather has humored her even though he does not. The humans here are too nosy for his comfort, too curious, and too troublesome. He could have rented a house and hidden himself better, but the thought never occurred to him and he cannot hear me when I suggest things like that anymore. He's been less then regular with his tea consumption as of late, and I fear that he's forgetting things. He used to have such a perfect memory. Now he's leaving notebooks about with extensive lists of data in them, on the console, on the food machine, on the backup console, in each coat… I suppose it's a sign that he's aware of the problem. At least I hope that is the situation, and it's not a sign that he's rejecting me. This is very worrisome. An indication that his first life is near it's end, possibly. I remember Marmal's old age and how he acted at the end of a life. This is similar. I can only hope that this is the case although my Doctor is young still in Gallifreyan terms, he has genes, future human genes, which seemed to have aged him.

This night was slightly different from other nights, because Susan returns to find her grandfather still out. She's not worried though. Instead she settles down in a chair and becomes enthralled in a rather thick book that seems to be a source of intense amusement and disbelief. I would be more absorbed in her reactions to the book if it were not for the feeling of invasion that Event overwhelms me with. Some of the humans must have set foot into her, and them being non-temporal beings, they feel wrong to her. I take a look outside. They are just inside the gate, scanning around with a small electronic torch. There's a man and a woman; both of the correct age to be considered mature adults but not old. By their clothes and their thoughts I quickly conclude that they are from the school that Susan has been going to. The man passes his light over the varied form of Event and mentally disdains what he sees, following it with verbiage along a similar line, "What a mess. I'm not turning any of this stuff over to find her..."

The woman wisely keeps her thoughts to herself, pointing instead to a likely path through the cluttered yard, "Over there?"

Event might not be intelligent enough to explain her own extremely unusual state of being, but she is certainly intelligent enough to be insulted by the feelings and thoughts flowing out from the human male in her midst. She may look like a junkyard, but she is not one. As he starts out in the suggested direction some parts of her shift soundlessly into his path causing him to stumble and fall. It's only as he's picking himself back up that he notices the torch is gone, "Blast! I dropped it!" _No, not really. More like Event took it right out of your hand, mister whatever-your-name-is, because you insulted her_. After an exchange of words the pair begins to explore again, calling for Susan.

I try to deflect attention away from myself as they venture closer. It works on the male, causing him to climb the flight of steps over me for no reason, then turn back to do it again. Likely he would have continued this all night long but for the fact that my deflection attempt doesn't phase the woman at all. She calls him back, "Ian... look at this!"

He then sees me, as if her pointing my form out makes me visible. "Well, it's a police box! What on earth's it doing here? These things are usually on the street…" With Susan inside I can't power down, so when he touches me his scientifically trained senses jump to high alert. But instead of pulling away he presses his palm even tighter against the outer shell of my interface. Excited he says, "Feel it! Feel it!" The woman, Miss Wright, briefly touches my side and pulls away with haste; "Did you feel it?" he asks her.

"It's a faint vibration..." she mumbles.

At this I send out a psychic pulse to warn them away. The reactions I get are not what I expect. Although he steps back, she does not. He exclaims, "It's alive!" He's gotten too close to the truth, and I'm almost tempted to jump away from him, but I can't because of the damaged filament. The male walks around me. The female just stands rooted to the spot. His curiosity gets the better of him; "It's not connected to anything, unless it's through the floor."

The pulse finally has an impact, and the woman says, "Look, I-I've had enough. Let's go and find a policeman."

Although the man agrees with this their exit is curtailed by my Doctor's arrival. He cannot sense my warnings, no matter how loud I shout, likely because he's not had his tea yet. And Susan has been so engrossed in the book that she's not spotted the scene on the scanner showing the two adults outside either. All I can do is helplessly watch as things escalate out of control. Not only does the absent-minded act not work to make the pair of teachers leave, but Susan's greeting actually ends up making them barge inside, Miss Wright first, followed by Ian and my pilot.

My Doctor is radiating 'cross' like a beacon; Susan is standing there on the other side of the console stunned, "Close the doors, Susan." While the two humans have come to an abrupt halt, totally in shock, staring at what is in front of them, taking in the size of my secondary control room, the dark headed young woman rushes to obey her grandfather's order. My instinct is to begin altering these two newcomers, remaking their DNA into something that can survive the space-time vortex. I'm barely aware of the action and they don't know I've begun to make them into something more than human either. As the large double doors close behind them my Doctor continues, "I believe these people are known to you."

"They're two of my schoolteachers! What are you doing here?" Susan suspects that things are going to be changing even if she doesn't want them too; I can see that my Doctor perceives only one course of action. It is the moment to leave this time and place, now he just has to decide if it will be only he and Susan or if the newcomers will be coming along for the trip.

Miss Wright seems more fascinated than scared, wonder making her face shine as she takes in the white walls and hexagonal-shaped console, both which are alien to her, and the scattered antiques which are not, "Where are we?"

This is ignored. "They must have followed you. That ridiculous school - I knew something like this would happen if we stayed in one place too long," my Doctor says by way of scolding his headstrong younger companion.

"But why should they follow me," Susan makes this a statement not a question. The point is a mute one, as clearly the pair has followed her, and is right now inside something that no lesser species is permitted inside. My Doctor has ignored this rule for at least one other, so I'm not surprised at his thoughts of leaving this place now, with them aboard. I focus more effort on rewriting their genetic code to survive the Space - Time Vortex, not knowing how much time my pilot's whim will give me to complete the task.

"Is this really where you live, Susan?" Miss Wright's sense of wonder morphs into concern as her mind begins to catch up and put the pieces together with what she remembers from the outside.

Susan looks at her, no understanding why this would be a problem, "Yes."

My Doctor narrows his eyes, snapping out in defense of me, "And what's wrong with it?" Ah, so he's not rejecting me! Oh… but he is suffering from memory lapses and aging. I'll need to find a way to make sure he's drinking his tea to ward off the negative effects of time travel.

"But it was just a telephone box..." the male teacher says, his mind trying to reject the strangeness of what it's discovered for the illusion of normality.

"Perhaps," says my pilot, although his mind is working on many, many levels at this point, not just on the current conversation. He's noticing that these two humans are coping with the strangeness rather well, and perhaps Susan could learn more with them here than she would be staying in the 1960's. Independently, he reaches the same conclusion I have and mentally orders what I'm already doing.

"And this is your grandfather...?" Miss Wright asks Susan.

"Yes." The dark haired girl responds.

The female teacher turns to the old man, "Well, why didn't you tell us that?"

Exasperated my Doctor glares at her, "I don't discuss my private life with strangers."

"But it was a police telephone box. I walked all round it! Barbara, you saw me!" the male teacher's mind comes back to the one thing that still isn't making sense to him.

My Doctor is more distraught than he wants to let on and he covers this by crossing over to a clock. It indicates that the time flowing inside the capsule is much, much, slower than time flowing outside. "You don't deserve any explanations. You pushed your way in here, uninvited and unwelcome." He ignores the teachers as they speak to each other, focused on the clock, "Dear, dear, dear, this is very…. It's stopped again, you know, and I've tried..." He really needs to figure out the problem and fix it, but he's not got a clue as to what the problem is.

"I know this is absurd, but I feel...I walked all around it!" The male teacher has come up to my Doctor's side and is trying to demand some explanation, in spite being told that he deserves none.

"Hmm? Oh, you wouldn't understand at all," the Time Lord can sense that his ship is altering these two, he can feel it in his bones as their genes alter and shift. It's as if the decision is being made for him. There's something about his ship that he knows he should remember… but it's slipping away, like a butterfly on the breeze. Something he should be doing regularly to help him remember things… what is it? He peers at the young man next to him and then walks back to the console.

The male teacher follows him step for step, "But I want to understand!"

He's found something at will work to fix the damaged filament, and this was why he is prepared to leave now. My pilot begins stripping off his cloak and scarf, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes." These he deposits over a chair. He pulls the electronic bit out of his pocket, "Oh by the way Susan, I've managed to find a replacement for that faulty filament. Bit of an amateur job, but I, er, I think it'll serve." This he begins to work into the correct location on the controls, and amazingly it does fit. I blink an indicator light at him to let him know that this will work.

"It's an illusion. It must be..."

My Doctor rolls his eyes, "What is he talking about now?"

Susan moves over to her teacher, "What are you doing here?"

But my Doctor's quiet cough gains the man's attention more effectively than Susan's question, "You don't understand, so you find excuses. Illusions, indeed? You say you can't fit an enormous building into one of your smaller sitting rooms?"

"No."

"But you've discovered television, haven't you?"

"Yes..." the young man admits.

"Then by showing an enormous building on your television screen, you can do what seemed impossible, couldn't you?"

"Well...yes, but I still don't know…"

My Doctor raises an eyebrow at the fellow, "It's not quite clear, is it? I can see by your face that you're not certain. You don't understand," this is followed by a laugh, "and I knew you wouldn't! Never mind." He turns back to the controls, focused on the task of checking on his repairs, "Now then, which switch was it...? No, no, no...Ah yes, that is it!" He flips the switch, coming to an accord with his ship about these two, for he knows what has been started, "The point is not whether you understand..." turning to the man he concludes, "What is going to happen to you, hmm?" After a pause to judge if the message has gotten through he says to Susan, "They'll tell everybody about the ship now."

"The ship...?"

"Yes, yes, ship! This doesn't roll along on wheels, you know," the pride that my pilot feels in me shines through his ire. I can sense that he wouldn't mind sharing the wonders of the universe with these two humans. I thrum in echoed desire.

Miss Wright blinks, "You mean...it moves?"

Susan looks at her; "The TARDIS can go anywhere, anywhen."

The older woman gives Susan a gentle look of rebuke as if she's speaking nonsense, "TARDIS? I don't understand you, Susan."

"Well, I made up the name TARDIS from the initials. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. I'd thought you both would understand when you saw the different dimensions inside from those outside," Susan looks hurt that they don't seem to grasp the reality of things.

But the male teacher is catching on faster than he likes, "Let me get this straight. A thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard... it can move anywhere in time and space!?" The two Gallifreyans chorus in agreement causing the fellow to exclaim, "But that's ridiculous!"

Susan turns to her grandfather, "Why won't they believe us?"

"Well, how can we?" Miss Wright quires.

My Doctor has seen this happen before, he expects he'll see it happen again. He rests his hands on Susan's shoulders to comfort her, "Now, now, don't get exasperated, Susan. Remember the Red Indian. When he saw the first steam train, his savage mind thought it an illusion too."

This seems like a slap across the face to the male teacher, "You're treating us like children!"

Blinking, my Doctor looks at him, "Am I? The children of my civilization would be insulted."

"Your civilization?"

"Yes, my civilization. I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it. Have you ever thought about what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles?" My Doctor indicates himself and his granddaughter; "Susan and I are cut off from our own planet, without friends or protection. But one day..." he gazes off into the distance, seeing something that only he can see, "...we shall get back. Yes, one day…one day..."

Susan clutches the hand that is resting around her shoulder, distraught at the disbelief she sees in the teacher's faces. "It's true. Every word of it's true. You don't know what you've done coming here…" she looks at the old man, "Grandfather, let them go now, please! Look, if they don't understand, they can't... they can't hurt us at all! I understand these people better than you... their minds reject things they don't understand..."

But the icy look on his face cuts off her words, "No." He lets go of her and stalks off to the back of the control room.

And while the young man states that my Doctor can't keep them, Miss Wright says, "Susan, listen to me, can't you see that all this is an illusion? It's a game that you and your grandfather are playing, if you like. But you can't expect us to believe it."

"It's not a game!"

"But, Susan…"

Even I can sense how upset Susan is about this; she knows that everything is going to change. It must change. It's not safe here anymore; "It's not! Look, I love your school. I love England in the 20th century. The last five months have been the happiest of my life..."

"But you are one of us. You look like us; you sound like us..." Miss Wright says.

This seems to upset the young Gallifreyan even more than being told that I am an illusion, "I was born in another time. Another world." In fact, she's downright angered by the implication that she is nothing more than a human.

The male teacher says, "Now look here Susan, you..." then he looks into her eyes and can see the alien glint there, that thing that marks her as different. He blinks then takes the woman by the arm, "Oh come on, Barbara, let's get out of here."

Even as they walk toward the wall trying to find the doors that I've moved to another control room, effectively locking them in even if they do find the switch to open them, Susan sees that I've changed them, right down to their DNA. They are no longer completely human either. She guesses this was done on her grandfather's orders, "No, you two can't get out. He won't let you go." As if in response the sounds of the controls powering up fills the room. My Doctor laughs. It's an alien sound, mixed with glee and triumph. This is his home and his power, and I am his ship. We will fly together through time and space.

The male teacher turns back to the console; "The Doors closed from over there. Susan closed them." He took a few steps closer, "I saw it..." But there are so many controls, and my Doctor, my pilot, doesn't want them to leave so the young man can make no sense of the controls, "Now which is it...? Which is it?" Then he looks up as my Doctor whose eyes are burning with that strange alien light that he's seen in Susan's eyes. He frantically demands, "Which control operates the door?"

"You still think it's all an illusion..." the elderly alien says with an intensity that burns right through the human soul in front of him.

The reaction he gains is hot anger, "I know free movement in time and space is a scientific dream I don't expect to find solved in a junkyard!"

"Oh, your arrogance is nearly as great as your ignorance!" my Doctor laughs at him.

Desperate now the young man pleads, "Will you open the door? Open the door!" the laugher he gets makes him turn at appeal to the girl, "Susan, will you help us?"

"I mustn't! I mustn't!"

This sinks in rather quickly and the young man turns back to my Doctor and the console. With a sigh he says, "Very well then. I'll have to risk it myself."

Smugly my Doctor, knowing that the controls will only work for those they are keyed to, and he's not one of those individuals, responds, "I can't stop you..."

Susan's warning comes just a bit too late, "Oh, don't touch it! It's alive!"

The shock resulting in the man's attempt at the controls flings him to the floor. Miss Wright jumps to his side, "Ian!" She helps him to his feet, shouting at my Doctor, "What on earth do you think you're doing?"

Overtop this comes Susan's plea, "Grandfather, let them go now! Please!"

"And by tomorrow we shall be a public spectacle. A subject for news and idle gossip." He moves his attention back to the console, even as Susan tries to distract him.

"But they won't say anything…"

He tries to make her understand, just as much as he's trying to make Ian and Barbara understand, placing his hands on his granddaughter's shoulders, "My dear child, of course they will. Put yourself in their place. They're bound to make some sort of a complaint to the authorities - or at the very least talk to their friends." Then he wags his finger at her, "If I do let them go, Susan, you realize of course we must go too."

"No. Grandfather, we've had all this out b…"

He cuts her off with a firm; "There's no alternative, child."

She seems rather used to getting her own way, not realizing that he's been away from her more than with her at this point. She doesn't know that he's not twisted about her finger like he once was, lifetimes ago, before this existence and this half-human form, "I want to stay! Look, they're both kind people. Why won't you trust them? All you've got to do is ask them to promise to keep our secret and…"

"It's out of the question."

"I won't go, Grandfather. I won't leave the 20th century…I'd rather leave the TARDIS and you!" She declares.

He scoffs at her, "Now you're being sentimental and childish."

"No, I mean it." He might not be wrapped about her little finger anymore, but he's not ready to let her go either. She's the only family he's got and he's been alone for one hundred and ninety-three years since his exile from Lungbarrow aside from the seven years he's had with her on the run (although it's been spaced over fifty-six years for him). But it's only after he begins activating controls that Susan realizes he means to take them all with him and that her ultimatum has backfired, "Oh no grandfather, no!" By the time she's made it back to the console to try to pull him away they are halfway into the vortex.

"Let me go!"

"No!" She keeps trying to stop him, unable to undo what he's activated because he's locked her out of the controls and unable to keep him from activating new ones because he's got longer arms than she does.

"Get back to the ship's side! Hold it..."

I am called to fly free. But tearing away from Event damages other instruments. I have no idea how far I've gone in that hop, nor if I'm even on the same world, at first, when I materialize. I must wonder how much a role I've played in the taking of the two teachers from their time. It has been lonely, these last few decades. I'm starved for companionship, as my pilot must be. While these two humans have far less intelligence than most Gallifreyans they possess a quickness and a life force that burns brightly to compensate. And they are mentally older than Susan is, more able to relate to my Doctor than the young child can. What I do know is that this location may teach the new arrivals exactly how much they have to learn in order to understand exactly how narrow minded they really are. I can only hope that they see…

My Doctor stares off into space, shocked at his actions. The two humans have survived their first trip into the vortex and he knows that means they are not human anymore, but something changed, different, altered in ways that will never be undone. Although they are unconscious they still live. But what has he done? Miss Wright comes too first, gaining her feet. She blinks and then kneels down at the man's side. He's on the floor still, and she shakes him gently, "Ian? Ian?"

The movement rouses him and he slowly sits up, one hand on his head, "I'm alright. Oh...I must have hit my head." He looks around; "The movement's stopped."

Susan has moved back to the console and is checking readings; "The base is steady."

"Well, sand, rock formation...mm, good."

"We've left 1963." She sounds just slightly upset by that.

My Doctor looks at her, "Oh yes, undoubtedly. I'll be able to tell you where presently." But his examination of the controls reveals which one has suffered from my pulling away from Event, "Zero? That's not right. I'm afraid this yearometer is not calculating properly... hmm. Well, anyway, the journey's finished." Then he spots Ian on the floor, "What are you doing down there?"

Barbara glares, "What have you done?"

Her companion gives her a shocked look, "Barbara, you don't believe all this nonsense?"

Susan looks from the controls to her teacher then waves at the screen, "Well, look at the scanner screen."

This is echoed by my Doctor, "Yes, look up there." Although as the pair on the floor rise he says to Susan, "They don't understand, and I suspect they don't want to." He glances at them and waves at the screen, "Well, there you are. A new world for you."

Ian says with contempt, "Sand and rock?"

"Yes, that's the immediate view outside the ship."

"But where are we?" Barbara asks. This is the sensible thing to be wondering, but she's ignored.

Ian still doesn't believe any of this, "You mean that's what we'll see when we go outside?" Susan tells him yes only for him to say again, "I don't believe it!"

"You really are a stubborn young man, aren't you?" My Doctor has found some amusement in this at the very least.

"All right, show me some proof! Give me some concrete evidence!" Ian exclaims before turning to Susan, "I'm sorry Susan, I don't want to hurt you, but…it's time you were brought back to reality."

She sighs, "But you're wrong, Mr. Chesterton…"

"They're saying I'm a charlatan." My Doctor frowns. "What 'concrete evidence' would satisfy you, hmm?"

"Just open the doors, Doctor Foreman."

"Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about...?"

Barbara touches Ian's arm, "They're so sure, Ian..." He agrees with this. She continues, "And remember the difference between the outside of the police box and the inside…"

"Yes, I know, but…" Ian looks over a my Doctor, "Are you going to open the doors or aren't you?"

"No. Not until I'm quite sure it's safe to do so." While this upsets Ian a bit, my Doctor still double checks the readings for he has no desire to kill these humans and it's been a few years since he's had a human on board. The readings are all positive, "Well, the air's good, yes it is, it's good, excellent, excellent..." then he consults with Susan, "You've got the radiation counter over there. What's it read?"

She checks it, "It's reading normal, Grandfather."

"Splendid, splendid. Well, I think I'll take my Geiger counter with me in any case." He then does a little posturing and smugly turns to Ian, "So you, er, still challenge me, young man?"

"Well, just open the doors and prove your point."

"You're so narrow-minded, aren't you? Don't be so insular."

Susan interrupts, "Grandfather, do you know where we are?"

My Doctor nods, "Yes. We've gone back in time, all right. One or two samples and I shall be able to make an estimate. Rock pieces and a few plants..." He looks back at the console and looks downcast, remembering what it used to be like, before he became ill, "But I do wish this wouldn't keep letting me down. However, we can go out now."

"Just a minute. You say we've gone back in time..." Ian says. My Doctor nods, "So that when we go out of that door, we won't be in a junkyard, in London, in England, in the year 1963..."

"That is quite correct. But your tone suggests ridicule."

Ian scoffs, "But it is ridiculous! Time doesn't go 'round and 'round in circles! You can't get on and off whenever you like in the past or the future!"

"Really? Where does time go, then?" My Doctor asks him.

"It doesn't go anywhere. It just happens, and then it's finished."

This makes my Doctor smile with amusement, "Oh..." it becomes a full laugh before he looks over at Barbara, "You're not as doubtful as your friend, I hope."

"No." Ian expresses disbelief at her acceptance, prompting her to cry out, "I can't help it! I just believe them, that's all!" she says to him.

"If you could touch the alien sand and hear the cries of strange birds -- and watch them wheel in another sky…would that satisfy you?"

"Yes," the young man admits.

I am commanded to open the doors and I do so, with the fevered wish that some accord is reached. I've not moved in space, but in time. This is the Ice Age, 100,000 years before our last time. I gently urge the four out. My Doctor swipes up his gear and steps out, Susan's warning doing very little to keep him nearby. Ian is more reluctant to exit, shocked by the change once he sees outside is in fact not the same. Barbara, once outside, is quite accepting, showing a scientific curiosity that will serve her well. And there's another thing that has broken, the Chameleon Circuit has finally breathed it's last. Ah well, I like this form, a blue police box. The color suits me.

It takes two and a half days for them to return, and when they do so it is in a run. They arrive one by one, strung out like pearls, Susan getting the door open with her key followed by Barbara and Ian and my Doctor who pauses at the door to glance behind them for just a moment. He sees the tribesmen with their torches and spears giving chase before slamming the door closed. Of them all Susan is the only one not winded. Ian and Barbara are exhausted from the run. My Doctor is leaning against the doors, eyes closed, mentally calling for me but unable to hear that I'm right there, trying as hard as I can to reach him. He's got unshed tears that he refuses to release. If only he'd remembered his tea. I try to focus on that but Ian distracts him. The male teacher crosses back to my pilot and tugs him to the controls, "Come on, Doctor, get us off! Get us off!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" he pushes the young man off and slumps against the console, indicating to Susan to help him. She does so, automatically doing the steps he's taught her to do. We enter the Vortex leaving behind the hostile primitives. Unfortunately with the filament fixed I can't change the coordinates and what I'm fed based on where we were ends us up someplace we should have never reached. Of course my pilot is hoping for some event or clue that will give him a precise time so that he can return to 1963. They don't get it. "Yes, it's matching up." He says as the controls change to reflect the programmed coordinates.

"We're beginning to land," Susan says.

What my Doctor wants, more than anything, is a time in his own planet's past that is peaceful but not stagnant, "Oh, how I wish..." I'm not sure such a time even exists.

"Have you taken us back to our own time?" Ian asks.

"You know I can't do that. Please be reasonable."

This makes both teachers react with alarm, Barbara even jumps up from the chair she's been resting in and moves to my Doctor, "Please, you must take us back! You must!"

He waves her back, and points at the controls, "You see, this isn't operating properly..." He walks a few steps, "or rather, the code is still a secret. Feed it with the right data, precise information to a second at the beginning of a journey, and then we can fix a destination. But I had no data at my disposal!"

"Are you saying that you don't know how to work this thing?" Barbara looks outraged.

"No, of course I can't. I'm not a miracle worker."

Susan jumped in; "You can't blame grandfather. We left the other place too quickly, that's all."

"Just a minute. Did you try and take us back to our own time?" Ian asks.

My Doctor sidesteps the question, "Well, I got you away from that other time, didn't I?"

"That isn't what I asked you."

Getting irritated my pilot responds; "It's the only way I can answer you, young man." All the while the sounds of my trip through the Vortex are becoming quieter and quieter. Then I settle into a new time and new place. My Doctor attempts to get some readings but there's an energy here that interferes with my instruments, "Now...now we shall see." The scanner reveals I have come to rest in a jungle thickly blanketed in mist. This is not Earth. It's not even the same galaxy. But I have no way to tell my Doctor this. "It could be anywhere. Dear, dear, dear, dear, i-it's no help to us at all! Well, I suggest before we go outside and explore, let us clean ourselves up." Susan agrees wholeheartedly. My Doctor picks up his coat and points to the instrument on the panel closest to his granddaughter, "Now, what does the radiation read, Susan?"

She glances at the dial, and I try to force it to move, but only too slowly does it respond, "It's reading normal, Grandfather." The four head off to wash themselves and change clothes before I manage to make the needle climb into the correct reading. But even the flashing light is ignored when they emerge, ready to look around. I've never wished for my psychic connection to be whole with more urgency. But he's not even bothered to drink a cup of tea in the interim and I can shout all I want but he won't hear. I scream in frustration as they exit into the highly radioactive jungle. I'm unable to stop them as the radiation here even prevents me from overriding the command to open the door.

It's dark when they return and even then my Doctor is distracted. I'm trying, desperately, to get his attention with the warning light, to make him realize that they need radiation medicine. _Oh blast it._ Now he's more concerned about Susan's mental state. Wait, there's the female teacher. I try to signal just a bit more with a tug to get her attention_. Oh… she's looking, yes… just a bit more. No. Ah, wrong area. Over here. Blast!_ My Doctor walks back into the room. "Did Susan tell you what frightened her?" Barbara asks him.

"Yes, yes. She's convinced that someone touched her, and I tried to make her see it wasn't possible, but, huh!... I'm afraid she wouldn't listen to me. I wonder, er... would you have a talk with her?" He asks.

"Yes, of course I will," Barbara seems flattered that he's asking her for help.

My Doctor is embarrassed to admit the truth that he's only known Susan for a very short time, and seven years is a short time in a lifetime of nearly four centuries, plus the young lady is much older than she looks although her mental state matches her physical one. As far as bloodlines go the former Lady Larn is his granddaughter, but at nearly eighty years of age, she's far closer to his own age than he is wont to admit. Still, some things a young lady is more likely to share with another woman than she is a man. And he and Susan have their own huge cultural gap to bridge. He fears that they never will. "Yes, er, you know sometimes I find the gulf between Susan's age and mine makes difficult, er, understanding between us."

Barbara moves to reassure him, "I'll see what I can do."

This earns her a smile, something that my Doctor rarely graces on others, "Oh, would you? Thank you, thank you very much... be grateful." Barbara doesn't seem to notice this rare event. I redouble my efforts. But my Doctor is a deaf to my attempts as always. I would try Susan but she's depressed about her grandfather not listening to her already.

In the meantime my Doctor has opened up the bank of navigation computers and is taking notes of the readings there. The male teacher is peering over his shoulder and is asking questions that are being ignored. This erupts into an argument, "Now listen, Doctor! I don't want to argue with you. We're fellow travelers whether we like it or not. But for heaven's sake, try and see it from our point of view. You've uprooted us violently from our own lives…"

The anger is about as sharp as I've heard of felt from my pilot, "You pushed your way into the ship, young man!"

"All right, all right, I admit it, a small part of the blame is ours…" Ian speaks right over my Doctor's scoffing; "…but naturally we're anxious! What are we going to do? Can we live here? What do we eat? There are millions of questions…"

Like lighting my Doctor's mood changes, "A very good idea. I'm hungry!" The Time Lord abandons the readouts in favor of getting some food. This prompts Ian to roll his eyes. He follows the old man into the living area, but spotting Barbara in pain causes all anger to fade away. And it's hard to be mad at my Doctor after he gently asks, "Oh, what's the matter?"

Barbara responds, "I've suddenly got this terrible headache..."

At this my Doctor seems genuinely distressed, "Oh dear, dear, how irksome for you." Then he spots Susan with the pain reliever, "But this stuff is very good. This should cure it." He warns Susan, "Now, not too much, dear, not too much..." He moves over to the food machine.

"No. Oh, Grandfather?" Susan says.

"Mmm?"

"I'm sorry I was so silly just now." He pats her shoulder and begins pushing buttons on the machine. It responds by bleeping at him and flashing lights. I'm tempted to give him tea. Maybe I should just start including it in anything he eats? Susan hands the medicine to Barbara, "Here, try this."

Barbara thanks her and drinks down the liquid as my Doctor pulls his food, in the form of a bar covered in foil, from the machine and begins to eat it. "Ooh, it's very nice," Barbara says of the medicine.

Susan takes the glass back as Ian says, "Let's hope it does you some good." She then nudges my Doctor and indicates the teachers, trying to remind him of his manners.

"Oh, er, did you want something to eat? What would you like, hmm?" my Doctor asks them.

Barbara says, "I'd like some bacon and eggs." To which Ian echoes his approval.

"Bacon and eggs..." my Doctor mumbles as he reaches for a small notebook. I can remember when he had all the codes memorized. He'd started writing them down over the last two decades. I hadn't noticed until now. _Damn_. Susan explains that the TARDIS is fully automated as my Doctor looks up the correct code for what they have asked for.

Ian jokes, "I hope mine doesn't taste of engine grease!"

The jest makes my Doctor wag his finger at the fellow, "Now, now, now, now, don't be ridiculous."

Barbara offers to get plates and is told that there's no need for them. The food machine puts out two bars on neat white trays. One is passed to Barbara and the other to Ian. At the prompting Barbara pronounces the food delicious while Ian jokingly says the bacon is a bit salty. This causes my Doctor to snap, "Well it shouldn't be - it's English!" and the next thing I know they are all laughing. I may well never understand humans, especially as they are all being poisoned with radiation and I can't seem to get anyone to actually look at the indicator light for it.

"No, seriously Doctor, this is remarkable! I mean, one bite and I taste the bacon, another and I taste the egg, how do you do it?" Ian asks.

"Well, food has component parts, dear boy. Flavors are rather like primary colors. You know, you blend two to achieve a third, and so on...etc, etc."

"Well, I think it's wonderful," Ian says. Susan opts to not eat but to head to bed, and while this is unusual for her, it's not so much so for a Gallifreyan her age. Before she is able to head off to bed, I sense someone outside and deliberately channel the sounds into the ship. Anything to get them too possibly look at that light. "Shh…what's that?" I continue to channel the sounds inside.

"The scanner!" my Doctor takes off toward the control room, Susan hot on his heels. By the time he gets the device turned on the source of the noise is gone and all I can show them is dead jungle. While I'm with the passengers in their desire to leave here, I know that there's reason to stay. One of which is the unseen package on the ground outside the door. Thus when the others begin to beg my Doctor to leave and it seems as though he might I'm tempted to blow a circuit on my own to stop him, only I don't have to because he's not intending on leaving. But I do worry about his plans to go and explore that city. Even more so when he sets off in the morning without taking the medication or drinking any tea. And because he has taken the fluid link with him I'm stuck here, paralyzed for all intents and purposes. _Damn him_.

I don't know what they've gotten up to but it's been a fair number of hours, ticking close to thirty six, when Susan comes, sobbing, into the clearing where I'm parked and practically crashes into me. What has happened? Oh… She's come back for the medicine. But why? Where are the others? What has happened to my Doctor? In my worry I nearly miss the fact that the Humanoid native gives Susan a second box of the drugs, before he guides her back to the city.

The one young man that had left with Susan returns alone. Others of his tribe join him. They chose to camp around me, something I don't quite understand. The leader can see me and realizes I'm a craft of some sort, he's uniquely resistant to my mental suggestions that I'm not really there, yet he shows no fear of me. It could be that his mind is too focused on the survivors in the city, although he doesn't forget about me for even a second. I let up on the psychic wave.

The sun sets and rises again, and these strange people get a message from Susan. Something about it fills me with dread. They wait one more sunrise before setting off to the city. When they come straggling back it is with wounded and dead. But I see that my Doctor is among the living as is Susan and Barbara. Quickly my Doctor makes friends with these people and learns that this is Skaro, and that these people have the information he needs to plot a course back to earth. Ian arrives shortly with the last of the Thal survivors.

Barbara and my Doctor have both come to the conclusion at this point that it is time to leave. Susan wants to stay, having found someone near her age to talk to, but has no desire to _stay_, stay. So when Ian reveals that the Daleks took the missing fluid link off of him my Doctor looks furious while Susan and Barbara give him a horrified expression. They are going to have to go back, again, to the city to get the part. I cannot keep mercury fluid inside me except for enclosed inside the fluid links, which means it is a part I must have. There are no spares.

Getting the locals to assist is tricky, and the task divides the group of my crew down the middle. But eventually Ian does find something that the Thal people are willing to fight for: each other. It takes until the next morning for the verdict to come back that the Thals will help. I can only hope the cost is not too great. They decide to split into two groups, one will set off right away, and the other will wait two days before beginning a siege upon the city, carefully knocking out the sensing equipment during the day before attempting to gain entry to the under city.

Ian and Barbara set off with the first group. My Doctor and Susan remain with the second. Three and a half days later the survivors straggle back, bringing with them many dead, although there are some missing and wounded too. I am relieved that my four have survived, and that the fluid link is back again. I'm going to have to make tea and force it upon my pilot, as he's stubbornly refusing to remember this vital part of his diet. Or he's doing it on purpose. I know not which is the case. The Thals of course want my Doctor to stay. I'm glad he won't. I don't like it here.

They all say their good byes, and my Doctor fits the fluid link back into place. Ah, finally. That is much better. The first thing the Time Lord does is place us in the Vortex in a state of limbo, carefully guiding us closer to the correct galaxy. Using his notes and the calibrated location of Skaro he gets the spacing correct then attempts to work back into the proper time using the rarely called upon fast return switch. This would work, honestly, if there weren't a hundred other things he couldn't have tried first. Or the damn thing sticks. In so doing, it creates a short that explodes, knocking everyone for a loop, me included.

I must find a way to communicate, and I must do it quickly. The explosion sends my Doctor to the floor, unconscious but stable. My screams at him are getting nowhere. Ian has landed in a chair and Susan is across the controls. She too is totally unconscious. Barbara wakes, and I try to reach her, hoping beyond hope that she will hear me. Instead she becomes disoriented stumbling through the room until she reaches something that has emotional meaning to her, "Mr. Chesterton…Ian Chesterton?" She is puzzled and unsure, and I realize that my attempt at reaching her is interfering with her ability to think. This won't do. I need to try something else. But what?

Then Susan stirs, "I thought..." She staggers toward the other woman, "I know you." I again try to communicate telepathically, only this causes the young, still developing, Gallifreyan to cringe and recoil, holding her head and fighting me off, "Ow!"

Barbara has turned toward her, concerned, "Have you hurt your head?"

"Ow... Yes, terribly!" Susan says as she continues to stagger away, knowing instinctively that this pain is not caused by external damage.

"Well, let me look at it." Barbara follows her, feeling no ill effects now that I've stopped trying to reach her directly. This is not working.

"Ow... Oh, my neck hurts too." I cease my attempt and the girl starts to relax, "Oh, oh, it's going away now... Oh, that's better... I couldn't think where I was for a minute..."

Barbara indicates a chair; "Do you want to sit down?"

"No, it's all right," although she does take a step closer to it before spotting my Doctor on the floor. This causes her to shout, "Grandfather!" as she rushes over to him and sinks to the floor near his side.

"He's cut his head open."

"I've…I've got some ointment," Susan remembers the medical kit.

"Well get some water too."

Still in a daze Susan agrees and gets to her feet. I must reach someone. I try her again and she feels the attempt in her automatic brain. She grasps her neck, "Ow." Then she sees Ian, "Who's that? Oughtn't we to go and help him?" Barbara ignores her, mumbling to herself about the slight wound on my pilot's head, it's not a big deal, really. "Water... hmm. Wh... what happened?" Susan asks.

"I don't know..." Barbara looks up and sees Susan is still standing halfway to the door, "Well go on!" At that I give up and turn my attention to the man, maybe I can force him to act before he regains full awareness?

I managed to get him upright before his eyes spot something that makes his brain connect, and once it does my tentative control of him is shattered, "You're working late tonight, Miss Wright." I back away and he stumbles as he takes in the surroundings. Regaining his footing he asks, "Can I have a glass of water?"

Barbara moves toward him, "Susan's fetching some."

He suddenly moves to face her, "Susan Foreman you mean?" She confirms this, then he notices my Doctor on the floor, "What's he doing there?"

"Oh, he's cut his head. Are you feeling all right?"

"Dizzy." He leans on the chair and says, "Shouldn't we help him?" Both of the teachers look at the old man on the floor.

My attempts are getting nowhere. What can I do? Block transfer? Control manipulation? How can I make them understand? While Susan is getting a bandage I try to reassure Ian and Barbara that my Doctor is merely unconscious, feeding information into Ian as he checks the Time Lord over. As a result he sounds like an automaton as he speaks, "His heart seems all right, and his breathing's quite regular. I don't think that cut's as deep as you think."

"What do we do if his skull's fractured?" Barbara asks.

Ian tilts my Doctor's head his direction, "I don't think it's as bad as that." I pull away from him, allowing his mind to take back over the functions I've been pressing on.

My Doctor suddenly begins to talk, "I can't take you back, Susan. I can't! I ca... I..."

"Huh! He's rambling." Ian says sounding amused.

The words make Barbara realize where she is finally, "The ship! The TARDIS!" Oh… If only I could just communicate with them! But at least one of them remembers where they are.

I spot Susan going for something from the food machine. I don't want to actually hinder her, but I must get through to someone that the situation is not right. She presses the Water button and I flash the empty light at her. "Eh?" She presses it once again and watches the light blink before using the code for water on the dials above. I've gotten her to pause, but not to start thinking. She takes the packet of water, "That's funny." She tries the water preset again and watches the light flash before she leaves the room. _Now what can I do? I'll open the doors, shields up, of course_. This gets Susan's attention. It gets Ian and Barbara's attention too. "The doors!" she cries. The other two are just staring out at the white glare of nothing as Susan rushes over to the pair, "Well they can't open on their own, they can't!" _Oh yes, they can_! _Why aren't you paying attention_!

Ian glances at my Doctor; "Perhaps he did it."

"Grandfather?!" Susan replies.

"Did it before he cut his head open," Ian continues.

"No, he wouldn't."

Barbara says, "They must have been forced open. When we crashed."

Ian echoes the last word in a question but Susan shakes her head, "No! The ship can't crash, it's impossible." She moves back to my Doctor, "Grandfather! Grandfather!"

The female teacher bends down next to Susan and tries to console her, "Susan, it's all right."

"No! No, there's something here! Inside the ship," Susan says. She is right, almost. It is me she senses, and I'm desperately trying to get someone to pay attention to me. Only her words and her feelings are not interpreted in any way that benefits the situation.

"What?" Ian asks.

Barbara becomes frightened, "But that's not possible."

Susan looks at Ian, "You feel it don't you?"

Barbara pulls her professional calm back around herself, "Give me the bandage." After Susan hands her the ointment-laced cloth, the older woman kneels next to my Doctor and looks at it, "Well what's this?"

Ian has moved over to the central console while Susan says, "The colored part is the ointment. You'll find the color disappear as it goes into the wound. When the bandage is completely white, it means the wound is healed." Ian turns away from the controls and faces the open doors, staring into the bright white beyond. I must make him understand. He makes for the open portal with purpose only to have the doors close as he reaches them. Does he get it? Can he understand the danger we are in? Hearing Susan gasp he shoots her an accusing glare.

"Did you do that?"

"We haven't moved," Susan speaks for both herself and Barbara. Ian strides away from the doors, toward the controls, and again the doors open. I'll not give up hope that he'll eventually understand what I'm trying to communicate to him. Without pause he swings back and makes for the doors again only to have them close on him. Susan is frightened; "I'm going to try the controls."

Barbara warns her, "Be careful Susan."

The young Gallifreyan jumps to her feet, swiftly moving to the console toward a button. I cannot let her interfere. She cannot understand me, and I don't know the why of it. Is it because I am not bonded to her? Is it because she is too young? I don't know. But I'm starting to make progress finally with the human companions, and they are my best hope in getting a message across so I scream at the girl and she doubles over in pain before stumbling backwards. "No! Ahh!" All I am able to convey to her is my own fear and pain_._ It is more than she can handle. With a groan she falls unconscious to the floor, landing next to my pilot. I believe his state is related more to my condition than his injury, but at least Miss Wright has applied the bandage to the wound.

"She's fainted! But she was all right a minute ago," Ian says as he and Barbara come to a stop next to Susan.

"Yes, and a while before that you were all unconscious."

I must try again. Ian seems more sensitive, or perhaps just more familiar to me being that he is male, so I target him again. All this does is make him dizzy and he stumbles forward, clutching his head. I think though that he's starting to understand. I let up and he takes in the entire room with a quick look, "What's going on here?!" _What indeed? _I need someone to pay attention to me. No one understands the danger we are in, nor how close to the end -- or beginning -- of everything we have gotten.My pilot is starting to awaken and I'm not sure that this is a good thing. His attitude may just cause more problems. But I cannot make him do anything as he cannot hear me.

"He's beginning to stir. Take the girl and put her to bed," Barbara suggests.

The male teacher picks up Susan as my Doctor groans. He says to Barbara, "If anything happens, let me know."

She looks at him in surprise, "Well what could happen?"

"I don't know," Ian carries Susan out of the room.

I've not had any luck; things are still very, very bad. I flood my pilot with as much of my fear and agony as I can manage, screaming at him with all the might I possess. I do this even though I know he cannot hear me, but maybe, just maybe he will feel something… anything. If I can get through to him then there is hope for our survival. If I can't then I don't know what I'll do. I can only hope that he understands.

As he stirs, Barbara inquires, "How are you?"

"My head. Oh." If only he'd taken his tea… but he has not for a week's worth of meals at least, and I don't dare let up.

"You…cut your forehead, but you'll be all right," Barbara tells him.

My Doctor is tenderly poking at the back of his own neck; "It hurts here."

"Where? Show me," Barbara examines his neck. "I can't see anything. There's no bump, or bruise or anything."

"Oh, it's on the back of the neck," he groans. Something about this is familiar to her. _Yes, Susan reacted the same way. Oh yes, please make the connection_. I just might be making slow but steady progress here. Now I just need to see if the two humans working together can solve the riddle I'm trying to give them.

After the male teacher settles Susan down into a bed and notes how warm she is. He immediately concludes that he needs to cool her off, "Water…" Like Susan before him, he goes to the food machine. This is my chance. He pushes the water preset and I flash the empty light at him. I'm not actually denying them water, because there's a packet of it waiting on the tray below, but I need someone to become aware that something is not right, and to take the clue for what it is. "Empty?" he inquires. Instead of fiddling with the dials he simply pushes the water button again and I once more flash the empty light at him. This causes him to actually investigate the machine, looking at the panel below the button carefully until he spots the packet of water on the tray. He makes a face of confusion, "Huh. All right." He's not quite putting the pieces together; perhaps there is something wrong with my method? He takes the water, prepares his handkerchief to use on Susan and moves back toward where he left her. In the interim I've tried a direct approach with Susan again, and am thinking that it is I that is not thinking straight. It's alarmed her, more than not and confused her, too. When Ian comes into the room, Susan is already defensive; holding the scissors like a weapon and is somewhat lost inside her own head and her own horrors. She sees him as one of her attackers from her time of being caught in her planet's past. But Ian freezes once he sees her kneeling on the bed like a feral child. He's confused, "What are you doing?"

The mad look in her eyes does not change, and as he approaches she raises the scissors to be more threatening. He tries to ask again what she is doing and she cuts him off, "No! Who are you?" But at this juncture I realize that it is me she finally sees. Me she is addressing. Who am I? What is this foreign contact that is brushing against her mind? I have no answer for her. I am what and who I've always been. Then I realize that she has very little Validium in her and my mind is not as in alignment with hers as I might like. She senses me as foreign.

Ian moves to take the weapon from her, "Susan! You don't need that." This is enough to make her strike out at him attempting to drive him away. He jerks back. I sense that she intends to stab him, thinking that he is the cause of the 'alien' mind she knows is there. Only the mind is mine, and I cannot let her stab this human. I stun her with an overwhelming pulse of my distress. She convulses, screeching and groaning from the intensity of it. Part of her realizes what the pain is, and she flips over and begins attacking the only part of me that she can reach, the bed she is on. Her response is as intense and as vicious as my own had been. Ian is frozen, too shocked to move to stop her. Eventually she falls unconscious on her own and the scissors fall to the floor. The bed will repair itself. But will Susan? I can only hope.

At a loss, I pull back. Perhaps I need another method? Maybe giving them time to think will help? Perhaps I'm in too much pain to think clearly? What would work to get the message through to them? My pilot, Barbara, and Ian gather in the room with the food machine. They are all still slightly impacted by my state. I realize that I cannot help it, I'm screaming deep down and cannot stop. This creates a low level confusion or daze in my passenger's minds. They react to this with short tempers at each other. My Doctor has settled on a couch, his head wound is healing, "No, no, the ship must have stopped and put us down somewhere." _No, no… Stopped yes. Down no. Hovered in the very last moment before nothing. Ah, in pain. _Why can't I get him to drink some tea? Needing more power to maintain my location in time, I dim the lights, quiet the internal sounds. Here's to hoping that they will notice how still everything is.

Ian, who is leaning against the table where the scissors are, watches Barbara turn in a slightly panicked fashion to the man on the sofa, "But where? Where are we?"

"Oh, all these questions Miss Wright! Please!" My Doctor holds his head, feeling a pressure from the psychic scream even if he cannot hear what Susan does.

From the center of the room Barbara says, "You don't know do you? You're just guessing aren't you?" She then heads back to the door into the control room. "Can we have some light in here?"

The response she gets is "What for?" She's starting to realize that I am attempting to communicate. She's noticing changes. This is a step in the right direction.

Ian moves to the food machine, "Have you any idea where we are, Doctor?"

"Where is not as important as why, young man. I must go and check the fault locator again," with this he stands and crosses into the doorway. Then he pauses, looking at Barbara who is staring into the console room. My Doctor look back at Ian, "You didn't touch the controls did you?" The teacher says no. The Time Lord advances on Barbara, "Or you?" he asks with a challenging and accusing finger pointed at her. This startles Barbara and she retreats back into the living area. "I know Susan wouldn't. I'm worried about that child. Temporary lapse of memory."

Barbara says as Ian approaches her, "I was thinking."

"Yes?" Ian encourages.

"Well? Yes, yes... Anything may help," my Doctor says as he moves quickly back into the room, too.

"Do you think something could have got into the ship?"

"No, no, no." the Time Lord says.

"Well the doors were open."

He shakes his head, "No, it's ridiculous."

Ian laughs at her, "What, you mean? An animal or a man or something?"

She becomes irate with them both, "Yes!"

"It's…it's not very logical now, is it? Hmm?" My Doctor ponders this, because it's a concept that he sort of recalls as familiar. Something about his ship… Something unique….Something shared… It slips away from his mind like mist before the sun.

Another mind. Another presence. Another being… "Or another intelligence," Barbara whispers. Why don't they realize? I'm alive, I'm aware; I'm intelligent and trying to communicate.

"Well as I said, it's not very logical."

She looks at him, "No it isn't, but does it have to be? I mean, things aren't always very logical are they? It's just that one's been through so much, I've..." Oh… Almost. She's almost figured it out. I have almost reached her. So close.

"I've been very patient with you Miss…Wright, and really, there's no more time for these absurd theories." Damn you, you stubborn Time Lord. Why haven't you drunk any tea? I'd be able to tell you directly if you'd only been following the normal routine.

Ian says, "Probably a mechanical fault."

"Yes, or electric," my Doctor agrees as he walks back into the control room. "It may even be the main unit. I don't know. I'm very worried about it all. Young man, I think you'll have to help me with that fault locator now that Susan's been put out of action." Argggg. So aggravating. It's not a fault per say, well it is, but not. But whining will not help. What else can I try?

Ian has followed him, "Yea, yes, of course I will."

"Thank you, thank you. It won't take us long." He walks, more out of habit than anything else, to the central console.

"I…I wouldn't go near the control column if I were you Doctor. It might give you an electric shock."

This makes my pilot pause, "Yes, well, perhaps it would be wiser to check the fault locator first. I'm glad I thought of that. Yes. Come along, come along." He hurries over to the proper location on the far side of the room.

Ian turns to Barbara and says her name. She knows what he's going to ask her, "Keep an eye on Susan?"

But the young Gallifreyan is awake and listening from her position behind the food machine and the words she hears fuels her own fear, "Yes. And, don't tell her about something being in the ship."

"No, of course not," Barbara says.

"You know, the less said..." at this Susan darts out and snags the scissors from the table. If there is something else on the ship she is going to defend herself from it. "... the better, eh?" She hears her grandfather holler for the teacher, getting his name correct for once. Ian responds, "Coming!" He then moves away from Barbara and over to the where my Doctor is leaning against the wall besides the fault locator, "Are you alright?"

I'm trying to make him see that something is very wrong, "Oh yes, these numbers keep blurring before my eyes. That's all." Yes they are. There's nothing wrong with your eyes. The numbers are blurring.

"What can I do to help?"

"Well, if you wouldn't mind standing in front of that indicator and...What you would see would be a series of numbers." Ian looks at the screen and sees exactly what the Time Lord had seen. He watches the characters flow from A12 to A13 then A14 and A15 and to A16 then A17 before he pulls back and blinks. _That's a clue, hello? Damn_.

Susan has retreated to the now repaired bed and is laying on it as if she never got up. She opens her eyes as Barbara leans over the table where the scissors had been; "You're awake now. How are you feeling?" Susan does not respond. Worried, the teacher crosses over to her, "Susan? You do remember who I am don't you?"

"Of course I do. You're Barbara," Susan says with coldness in her voice. Barbara changes the cloth on Susan's forehead, "Why? There's nothing wrong with me."

Barbara blinks, "Hmm? No, you're... you just need a rest, that's all."

"Where's grandfather?"

"He's checking the controls with Ian."

Susan narrows her eyes, "Have they found out what's wrong with the ship?"

"Well, Ian thinks there was a power failure." Suddenly the older woman realizes what it was about the table that made her pause; the scissors are no longer on it.

"Why did you ask me if I knew who you were?"

"Susan, why don't you give me those scissors? Give them to me," she says as she turns to face the girl who is already moving to threaten her with them, "Susan, what's all this about?"

"You said there'd been a power failure," Susan accuses.

"No I didn't, I said that's what Ian thinks."

"I overheard the two of you. There's something here in the ship and he doesn't want you to tell me."

Barbara nods, "Oh, I see. You just overheard a couple of words and you comple..."

"No! You lied to me."

At this Barbara says, "We wouldn't hurt you Susan. Surely you know that?"

Susan slowly raises the scissors as if to attack but then she notices something. "Ah--" Barbara quickly gets the sharp object away from her and Susan scarcely pays her any mind. Instead she is focused on the surroundings. "I've never noticed the shadows before. It's so silent in the ship." Yes! That is a clue. Are you listening? Can you see?

"Yes…or we're imagining things. We must be…I mean, how would anything get into the ship anyway?"

Owlishly Susan looks at her; "The doors were open."

"Yes, but…but where would it hide?"

"In one of us."

Barbara shakes her head, "No. No. We must stop talking about this. I mean, can you imagine what the others would say if we told them? They'd simply laugh at us."

"Supposing there isn't a fault," Susan says moments before Ian's entrance causes her to jump from the bed in fear.

"You must be clairvoyant…. We've just checked everything, and it's all perfect. Which is fantastic." He looks at the youngster, "How are you feeling?"

Settling back into her skin she answers, "I'm alright. What's my grandfather doing?"

"Good." He nods. Then, "That's what I came to tell you both. He's decided that the only fault can be outside the ship. He's gone to turn on the scanner."

Susan screams, "No! No, he mustn't." She takes off in a run heading for the control room. "Don't touch!" she shouts as she bursts into the room. It's the sight of her grandfather standing there at the console just looking at it that causes her to stop her forward run.

He looks up at her, "Hmm? Are you alright child?"

"Yes. Grandfather, I tried to touch, and it was like being hit but without any pain."

"Hit where?" he asks.

She thinks, "Well, the back of my neck hurt."

"Yes, rather like mine," he notes.

Ian and Barbara have followed Susan and the words cause Ian to rub the back of his neck as he thinks, "Funny, it didn't effect Barbara and me like that."

"No, it didn't, did it? I must find out what's outside the ship. Susan, stand close beside me will you?" His granddaughter holds onto my pilot's shoulders while he looks pointedly at the two humans, not realizing that the difference in reaction is caused by nothing more or less than the differences in brain structure. After a moment he carefully reaches over and swiftly flicks the switch. That panel is the only safe one, because it's the one with the malfunction. Now if I could only get them to realize this.

"Nothing happened to you," Susan says, puzzled.

"No indeed." My Doctor is drawing the wrong conclusion and I must make him understand this. Only I know that he's stubbornly set with his idea and only the most conclusive proof will convince him otherwise.

Susan blinks, "Hey, the scanner's working."

Actually it's not quite working. I've connected it into another system in a desperate attempt at communication. I flash up an older image of a field and trees complete with sound.

"That could be England," Barbara says.

"Oh, yes, I remember that," Susan says.

My Doctor makes a face, "That's very curious. That's can't be what's outside the ship. This is a photograph." Once he's made this connection, I open the doors again. This makes everyone turn to face the bright white that is out there. "Close the doors Susan," the Doctor orders. She doesn't move. She remembers the pain from trying that control before. The sound outside is a roaring noise.

Ian offers to close them, moving toward the control, but I don't want to hurt him and close the doors before he can reach the lever. "Well I didn't touch it."

"There's another picture," Barbara says as she points to the scanner.

Now it shows swampland and the cries of alien creatures. The Doctor and Susan both recognize this. For him it's been a few trips back more than for her, but all the same they recognize it as being from the past, "Oh, I recognize that. That's where we nearly lost the TARDIS, four or five journeys back."

"Yes, the planet Quinnis, of the fourth universe," my pilot agrees.

"That's not outside either. That's a photograph." Susan states.

Ian asks, "Can you explain it?"

The Doctor sits down in a chair; "Did I ever tell you that the ship has a memory bank hmm?"

"Yes, It records our journeys," Susan seconds.

Ian shakes his head, "No, I don't think so."

"Are you sure? I thought I did."

I'm getting rather annoyed, at this point. I've established that I'm showing other places that they've been to, but still my suppressed scream of pain is making them all distracted. _Ok let's try this_. "Hey look," Susan points out that the image has changed again. I show Skaro from orbit. From further away. The galaxy. A bright flash of white and then nothing. _Oh please… please understand what I'm trying to show you. _

"Well, what's all that about?" Ian asks. _Some science teacher you are_.

My pilot stands, "Oh, don't you know? I thought you might be able to explain it."

"Why me?" Ian frowns at the Doctor's hostile attitude.

The Time Lord rounds on him, "Trying to confuse me, eh?" he laughs at the baffled look on Ian's face.

"What are you getting at?"

Barbara has been the voice of reason here, and once again she tries to step in and keep tempers calm, "Look, why don't we just try and open the doors and see for ourselves what's outside."

_Oh damn it all._ They break into a fight, Susan excluded. The Time Lord is saying, "What is inside, madam, is most important at the moment. I know now who's responsible. You are, you've sabotaged my ship." Ian and Barbara protest that they haven't touched anything, but the stubborn pilot of mine keeps right up with his accusations, "You are the cause of this disaster. And you've both knocked Su... you…you've knocked both Susan and I un…unconscious."

"Oh don't be ridiculous, we were all knocked out," Barbara says.

"A charade. You attacked us," my Doctor insists, speaking right over Ian, "And when we were lying helpless on the floor, you tampered with my…my controls."

Ian shouts at him, "But you checked everything yourself, and you couldn't find anything wrong with it!"

"No, sir. We checked everything, you and I." And when Barbara asks why they would do such a stupid thing my pilot tells her, "Blackmail, that's why. You tried to force me to return you to England. I know it, I'm sure of it."

This angers Barbara and really it takes much to make her mad, "How dare you! Do you realize, you stupid old man, that you'd have died in the cave of skulls if Ian hadn't made fire for you? And what about what we went through against the Daleks? Not just for us, but for you and Susan too, and all because you tricked us into going down to the city. Accuse us... You ought to go down on your hands and knees and thank us. But gratitude's the last thing you'll ever have, or any sort of common sense either!"

I've had enough of this nonsense myself. Using block transfer equations I melt the clock face on the antique clock and then every other clock in the room, including the wristwatches they are wearing. They must stop this folly at once and listen to me. They are out of time for this foolishness. Barbara stalks away from the Doctor in anger but her eyes are drawn to the clock. Her scream gets the others' attention. The reactions to the melted, twisted mess is varied. Barbara recoils in shock, holding her head with her hands before spotting that her wristwatch as also melted. This she flings away in horror with another scream before falling into a chair in tears. Susan gasps at the sight. Ian looks at his own watch with curiosity then moves to comfort Barbara before becoming distracted by the melted watch. Susan crouches by her teacher with a worried look on her face. "You can't blame us for this Doctor. Where is he?" Ian asks

The Doctor in the meantime has gone off to get a 'drink' for everyone, adding a bit extra that he knows won't impact he and Susan the same way it will Ian and Barbara. He returns with the tray, "I've decided we need more time to think. We're all somewhat overwrought." He offers the drinks to the others, "Mr. Chesterton." After Ian has taken one he moves to Susan and Barbara, "Miss Wright, Susan," he waits until they have taken a drink off the tray and takes the last for himself.

Ian in understandably concerned, "I wish I could understand you Doctor. One moment you're abusing us, and the next you're playing the perfect butler."

"A little nightcap, to help us relax and sleep. Hmm?"

Ian frowns, "If it is night." He looks at the melted thing on his wrist, "We have no way of telling now."

Barbara says, still rather upset, "I'm going to bed." She then leaves the room.

"Make it up with her grandfather. Please do," Susan begs before she too exits.

My Doctor sits in the chair as Ian says, "Doctor, some very strange things are happening. I feel we're in a very dangerous position. This is no time for personal quarrels."

"Meaning?"

"I think you should go and apologize to Barbara at once," Ian says.

"I'm afraid we have no time for codes and manners. And I certainly don't underestimate the dangers, if they exist. But I must have time to think. I must think! Rash action is worse than no action at all." He gets to his feet and leaves.

Ian frowns, "I don't see anything rash in apologizing to Barbara." He follows the difficult old man into the living area. Susan once again is hiding behind the food machine listening. "Frankly Doctor, I find it hard to keep pace with you."

"You mean to keep one jump ahead. That you will never be. You need my knowledge and ability to apply it and then you need my experience, to gain the fullest results," the Time Lord tells him.

Confused Ian asks, "Results? For good or for evil?"

"One man's law is another man's crime. Sleep on it Chesterton, sleep on it," My Doctor exits the living area, while Ian stands there blinking.

Susan slips away and heads toward sleeping area she shares with Barbara. When she gets there she notes that the older woman is still awake, "I'm... I'm sorry for what grandfather said to you."

Barbara looks away and coldly says, "It wasn't your fault."

"I know, but... try and understand him. Forgive him," Susan pleads.

"Try and get some sleep." With a sigh Susan settles down on her bed and the older woman closes her eyes.

This is exactly the opposite of what I need to be happening. But perhaps some good will come out of it? Some span of time that is not time passes. My pilot checks Barbara to see if she sleeps. It seems that she is, so deeply that his touch does not rouse her. He then goes into Ian's room and checks him, and finds that he too is deeply sleeping. Because he cannot hear my warning and can ignore the pain I must use another method to stop his foolishness. As he heads into the control room I move to control Ian, forcing him upright and through the living area behind my pilot. Unaware, the Time Lord is gleefully plotting another set of actions that will destroy us all if he is not stopped. I shout at him as he moves to the controls. He pauses, hearing the faint shuffle of slippers on the floor behind him. He turns as Ian's hands, under my control, land on his neck. I don't mean to choke, but this gets my pilot's attention, which is the best I can hope for under the situation.

He pushes the trance held teacher to the floor, and the fall wakes him. He lands with a wide-eyed cry. The sound causes Barbara to rush into the room and over to Ian who has passed out. The Doctor glares at her, "So it was you? It's no use pretending."

"Ian!" Barbara begins to check the man over, "Well help him."

"Help him? You saw him. You saw trie…what he tried to do."

Barbara says, "But now he's fainted just like Susan did."

"She didn't faint. It was you that told me she fainted, and I very nearly believed you. Young lady, he very nearly tried to strangle me!"

"Oh, what does it matter? But he has fainted, look at him."

My pilot dismisses this, "Oh, he's play-acting."

Barbara gets to her feet and follows the Doctor as he moves away, "No he isn't!" Then in a calmer tone she says, "Oh Doctor, don't you see? Something terrible's happening to all of us."

"Not to me, nothing's happened to me. This is a plot between the two of you to get control of my ship." She protests again that he is wrong, and he says, "Can't you see I've found you out? Why won't you admit it? Hmm?"

Susan, who has entered while they are arguing says coldly to Barbara, "Yes, why don't you." This shocks the teacher, but Susan says, "You've been behaving very strangely. Both of you," she moves over to the old man, "I think you're right Grandfather."

"But you're wrong. I swear we haven't done anything."

My Doctor looks over at Susan but addresses Barbara; "I told you I'd treat you as enemies."

His expression is, for Susan, easy to read, and she quickly understands what he's planning on doing, "No!"

"There's no other way," he tells her.

"Well what are you going to do?" Barbara asks in a slight panic.

"That is my business."

The female teacher clears the distance to her downed colleague in record time, "Ian, wake up! For heaven's sake, wake up Ian!" In her panic she turns him over, glances up at the old man who stares back at her, and redoubles her efforts, "Ian! Ian, help me!"

He stirs just slightly, "Eh... I... I..." But it is more my trying to communicate desperately in any possible way I can than his really resuming consciousness.

My pilot says, "There's no alternative. Your little trick endangered our lives."

Susan shakes her head and moves over to her two teachers, "How did he get like this?" Her grandfather scoffs and calls it a charade but is ignored, thankfully.

"He went near the control panel," Barbara tells her.

Susan looks at my Doctor, "It did happen to me, grandfather."

This gives Barbara something to grasp, and she clutches at both the lead and Susan, "Yes, you remember! You lost your memory, and there was this terrible pain at the back of your neck."

"Yes. Yes, that's true," Susan remembers.

"What do you think we've done? Hypnotized you? Drugged you? Susan, we wouldn't do anything like that, believe me."

My pilot takes the attempt the wrong way, "I see, divide and conquer eh?" then he addresses Susan directly, "She's trying to poison your mind against me."

I must get through to him, and Ian is my clearest and best shot. So I spring him into a sitting position and feed him enough panic that he shouts, "Don't touch it Doctor!" Of course the effort makes him pass out again.

Susan blinks at Ian, then says to Barbara, "I do believe you." Then she addresses my pilot, "Grandfather, they couldn't have done all the things that have happened to us."

"Oh, yes I admit they were very smart."

She counters, "No, it's not a question of being smart."

"Don't you see I wouldn't allow them to hurt you child? They're very resourceful and cunning. And it leaves…only leaves me one recourse. They must be put off the ship."

Susan climbs to her feet, "No, you can't do that!"

"I can, and I must."

Barbara jumps in, "But you can't open the doors."

"Don't underestimate u... underestimate my powers young lady."

"Look grandfather, you've no means of telling what's out there. There may be no air, it may be freezing, it may be too hot to exist," Susan says as she starts to move toward him again.

He agrees with this, "Yes, or it might be the Earth in the twentieth century. Hadn't it occurred to you? My ship is very valuable remember."

"Why are you so suspicious of us?" Barbara asks him.

He peers at her, "Put yourself in my place, young lady, and you'd do precisely the same thing wouldn't you? Hmm?"

Ian stirs again, mumbling, "What are you two saying to each other?"

"You're getting off the ship Chesterton."

"Now?" comes from the floor.

"Yes, now! Get up!"

"Hmmph," Ian begins trying to gain his feet but he's too weakened from my repeated uses of his body to make his limbs work, "You'll have to help me Barbara." She agrees but doesn't move to help him up, "You'll have to help me Barbara," he repeats. "I'll be all right when I get outside." She makes a partial move to assist him.

"Grandfather, he doesn't know what's happening. I won't let you do this!" Susan says angered.

"If, of course, they'd like to confess to me what they have done to my ship, I may even change my mind." The Time Lord says with a sniff.

I've had enough. Everything I've tried has come to naught and I will not allow him to toss two innocent people out into the beginning of the universe. I blare the danger indicator from the console, placing us in that much more jeopardy, moving us a fractional instant closer to death.

"Wha... what was that?" Barbara asks.

"The danger signal!" Susan tells her.

Then my Doctor sees what I've been putting off indicating all along, "The fault locator!" He quickly moves to the panel that I've completely lit. There's not a single indicator that I've not tagged as faulty. Maybe now he'll pay attention. He is pointing at the panel, "The whole of it!"

I force myself back into the overtaxed system of the human male, "Ah! Don't touch it Doctor!" He sits up again. The female human tries to reassure him/me, but I/we force the words out, "No! No! You'll get knocked out!"

"It's all right!" Barbara says, frantic to figure out what is going on.

Susan moves to my Doctor's side, "Grandfather, tell me."

"The whole area of the fault locator has just given us a warning."

"Well everything can't be... everything can't be wrong."

The Time Lord looks her, "That's what it means child."

I am still trying to communicate through the human male while this is going on, I manage to get him onto his knees and reaching for someone. His hands encircle Barbara's neck just like I'd done with my Doctor when trying to warn him from the controls. Seeing this shocks the Time Lord. But Barbara gently and quietly lowers the hands while speaking, "No, Ian. Ian, it's all right. It's all right. It's all right."

My control is slipping causing the body to shake, but I/we manage to get out, "I pulled you away. The controls are alive." then he slips too deep into unconsciousness for me to revive.

Barbara senses a shadow over her and looks around then up to see the Doctor towering over her. His expression is focused on Ian. He glances at her and sees her fear. Suddenly he realizes that he's misapplied his anxiety. "No, you mustn't be frightened of me. Not now, please. I can't explain, but I've just realized the danger we're in."

I sound the danger tone again. Susan crosses from the fault locator to where the Doctor is, "They're off again, Grandfather." She then returns to the panel.

Feeling sheepish the Time Lord says, "Oh, er…look. We must pull him round." He kneels next to Ian and I pull away from the fellow. "You see that panel up there? You've heard me refer to it, the fault locator?" Barbara indicates that she knows what he's talking about. He continues, "If one small piece of apparatus fails, a little valve illuminates and tells me precisely where the fault is. Can you imagine what would happen, if the whole of it lights up?! Hmm?" He stands, "It means, that the ship is on the point of disintegration. You're not to blame. All four of us are to blame!"

Ian regains control now that I've stopped trying to work through him only because I can't afford the effort it takes any longer, "Oh, you're all right. Ha. That drink you gave us?"

"Oh, a mere harmless sleeping drug."

Ian makes a face, "Ah, I thought so."

My pilot nods, "Yes, you rather suspected I was upset…up to some mischief."

"Yes, and I... I told you not to go near the control column. I told you. You'll electrocute yourself."

"I'm afraid I…must have misjudged you both," the Time Lord attempts to apologize.

The danger tone fills the air again. Susan walks back up, "Fifteen seconds. It's happening every fifteen seconds." I'm running out of ability to keep up the fight.

At this the Doctor looks thoughtful. Barbara says, "But all the clocks are..."

"I counted." Susan tells her.

"Well, please go on counting." At her grandfather's order Susan nods and runs back to the fault locator. Barbara and my Doctor help Ian to his feet. "Now both of you, listen, can you concentrate?"

"Yes, I think I'm all right," Ian reassures him.

"We're on the brink of descrus...of destruction, so the…all four of us must work closely together. We must find out where we are and what is happening to my ship."

Ian blinks, "Just a moment. Why did you say that, the brink of destruction?"

"There's a strong force at work somewhere, which is threatening my ship. It's so strong that every piece of equipment can be out of action at the same time."

The science teacher very quickly understands, "What?! Total disintegration?"

"Precisely. We haven't crash-landed otherwise I would have discovered that immediately. And I don't believe there is an evil intelligence in the ship. Just at the same token, I don't really believe that you, either of you, have been the cause of this trouble."

"Well what is then?"

My pilot sighs, "I don't know, but we must find out."

"Yes, but how long have we got?"

The now familiar sound of the danger tone fills the air again, "It's happening every quarter of a minute," Susan calls.

"Well what does that prove?" Ian asks.

It is Barbara that begins piecing the clues together. "That we have a measure of time as long as it lasts. Yes of course, that explains the clock face. We had time taken away from us, and now it's being given back to us... because it's running out!"

At that guess my stranglehold on the central piston that keeps the Eye of Harmony under control slips, causing an explosion that rattles the room and throws everyone off balance. This forces the Time Rotor to rise and fall. "The column!" Susan exclaims.

"But it…it's impossible!" My Doctor is shocked.

Ian moves over to him, "Doctor, I thought it only moved when the power was on."

"Yes. The heart of the machine is under the column."

"Well what made it move?"

The Time Lord answers, "The source of power. You see when the column rises, it proves the extent of the power thrust."

Scared Barbara asks, "Then what would have happened had the column come out completely?"

"Well, the power would be free...free to escape!" Susan responds in shock.

This disturbs the Time Lord as well; "Can it be possible then…that this is the end?"

Ian becomes angered, "The end! What are you talking about?"

"We have ten minutes to survive. Maybe less." My pilot crosses over to the panel with the scanner switch.

"Ten minutes? As little as that?" Barbara wonders.

"Be careful, Doctor," warns Ian.

"Oh, it's quite safe here. This is where I stood when I tried the scanner switch."

"Yes! Yes! Why is that part safe?" Barbara quires.

"We'll never stop it in time," Susan wails.

"Don't Susan…" Barbara goes over to her, "Please don't."

"I don't know even where to begin, Chesterton. If only I had a clue," my Doctor says.

I'd scream in frustration if it weren't for Barbara's sudden understanding. She looks at the melted clock; "I think…I think perhaps, we've been given nothing else but clues."

"Have we..?" Ian starts then changes his tune as he thinks about it, "Like the food machine you mean!? It registered empty, but it wasn't."

"Yes!" Barbara points at the clock, "But the clock is the most important. _It_ made us aware of time."

"By taking time away from us," Susan says, starting to catch on.

"Yes. And _it_ replaced time, by the light on the fault locator."

Ian nods, "Yes, _it_ did!"

Oh my Doctor, surely you remember? How can you forget or deny when I called you upon the sacred mountain in front of the KingMaker? I am starting to think that the damage you suffered was greater than anyone guessed way back when. Or have you decided that those memories are but a boy's fancy? "_It_? _It_? What do you mean? My machine can't think," my Doctor declares as he walks up to them. I want to cry. I've been wondering if his not drinking tea is a deliberate message that he no longer wishes to even try to have what he fought to regain for so many years. Oh, but maybe… maybe he's showing his age? Maybe he's forgotten?

"You say _it_ has a built in defense mechanism?" Barbara asks him.

"Yes, it has."

She looks at him, "Well that's where we've been wrong. Originally, the…machine wasn't at fault, we were. And _it_'s been trying to tell us so ever since."

Ian blinks at her, "A machine that can think for itself? Is that feasible, Doctor?"

Grrr. Just forget my organic brain shall we? My telepathic circuits? Our entwined DNA? The fact that I'm much more than a bunch of parts? "Oh, think, not as you or I do, but er, it must be able to think as a machine, you see it has a bank of computers," my pilot tells Ian.

Barbara crosses over to the safe panel and gazes at the crystalline structure of the Time Rotor, "You say the power is under this column?" The answer she gets confirms her knowledge. "And the column holds it down?" Again this is answered with a yes. "Well then, what would make it want to escape?"

"I've been racking by brains. I don't know," the Time Lord says.

Ian suggests, "Something outside? A magnetic force?"

My Doctor blinks, "Yes, possible. It would have to be a gigantic one. A one as s-strong as a solar system."

At this I nearly toss in the effort. An explosion rocks the room. "You see? The machine's been warning us all along. All those blackouts we had," Barbara says.

"Yes. But only if anybody went near the control column," Susan adds.

Ian frowns, "But it could be the power escaping."

My Doctor shakes his head, "No, no it couldn't. If you felt the power dear boy, you wouldn't live to speak of it. You'd be blown to atoms in a split second."

"Besides, it's the part of it that's safe," Susan reminds them.

"Yes, the scanner. I wonder..?"

My Doctor understands her and encourages her, "Well try it, but we're clutching at straws." But we are out of time, everything is becoming harder and harder for me to keep from happening. Another explosion rocks the room. "Now Susan, and you young lady, should those doors open again, I want you to be standing by them, and tell me whatever it is you see outside, understand?" They move to the doors and my pilot signals Ian over. He says softly to the other man, "I lied, deliberately, so that they won't know."

"Won't know what?" Ian asks.

"We have five minutes only. When the end does come, they won't know anything about it," the Time Lord tells him.

"There's no hope then?"

"I can't see any. Will you face it with me?"

Susan becomes suspicious and calls, "What are you two talking about?"

Ian covers, "Oh, just a theory of mine that didn't work."

This seems to be the answer and assurance that my Doctor seeks from the man. He nods in approval and adopts a jaunty tone so that the two women know nothing is amiss. "Yes, we must solve this problem you know! We must." He then turns to the scanner and once more I try to communicate to them. It is my last hope. He flicks it on. I show the field and open the doors.

Susan shields her eyes and tries to see through the glare, "There's nothing there! Nothing. Nothing." This causes her to cry, "Nothing but space." She seems to fold in on herself as despair takes hold.

"It's all right Susan," Barbara comforts her. The image on the scanner changes to that of the swamp, Quinnis, then the doors close, and Ian suggests that perhaps Barbara is right about this being a clue. She says, "I am right, I know I am." She looks back at them, "Whenever there's a good picture, the doors open because it's safe for us to go outside and then it shows us a terrible picture and the doors close again."

"Yes, then we have the sequence," my Doctor agrees. At this they all look to the scanner again. They have seen this before. I show them Skaro from orbit. "A planet." I show them the same, but from farther away. "A planet in the solar system." I show the galaxy. "Getting further away." I make the screen flash white and go blank. "A blinding flash... destruction. Yes, of course, it's our journey," the Time Lord finally sees what I've been showing. But it might be too late.

"And…. And the ship refused to destroy itself," Barbara concludes. "The defense mechanism stopped the ship, and it's been trying to tell us so ever since!"

My Doctor suddenly understands, "Yes, yes. Of course. Of course!" Another explosion, this one bigger than the last, causes everyone to grab something to keep their balance. The control room, indeed the entire ship, is plunged into darkness as I divert even the life support systems to holding myself together to give them those last few seconds that might make a difference. "Oh. I know, I know. I said it would take the force of a total solar system to attract the power away from my ship. We're at…the very beginning, the new start of a solar system. Outside, the atoms are rushing towards each other. Fusing. Coagulating. Until…minute little collections of matter are created. And so the process goes on, and on until dust is formed. Dust then becomes solid entity. A new birth of a sun and its planets!" Only it's larger than that, my Doctor. We are back at the beginning of the Universe, not just a solar system. The pressure is almost more than I can handle and if someone doesn't solve this quickly then we will all perish.

Ian comes back over, "Doctor, where are we? When we left the planet Skaro, where did you ask the machine to take us to? Think Doctor!"

"I, er, had hoped to reach your planet Earth. Skaro was in the future and…I used the fast return switch."

Ian blinks, "The fast return switch? You've sent us back too far. Doctor show me. Show me that switch. Where is it."

"Well... I... I... I can't very well see it without a light can I?"

Susan looks at Barbara and says, "It's near the scanner switch."

"Really? But that's the part of the control that's safe," Barbara comments. Susan nods.

My Doctor struggles to find a light in his jacket, while Ian urges him on, "Doctor, we haven't got very much time left."

I push the torch he's looking for into his hand with extreme effort, because he's so very close to solving this, "Yes, I see. I…I…here it is, here." He turns the light onto the console, "You see? Now, look. There's the switch. You see?" It's a simple button that is the problem, one of the items that he's switched out to allow for nontraceable operation.

"Yes, well how does it work?"

"Well, you merely press it down, and..." He puts his finger on the button but it doesn't even move. Excited, he looks at Ian, "It's stuck. It hasn't released itself."

"What? You mean it's been on all this time?"

"Yes, it must have been."

Ian can see the fix is right there, "Well come on, Doctor. Let's get it unstuck!"

"Hold that," my pilot passes the torch to Ian and locates the tool he requires, "Yes, just a minute now." He removes the outer casing, "Ah. Yes. There you are you see." Ian asks what the problem is and the Time Lord tells him, "The spring's not connecting. It's come off the base." With that he removes the button itself. "There we are, we'll take it out. Now luckily we can turn it over, and now it should work. There, ah, that's all right." He then puts the casing back and presses the button. This releases the fast return and I am able to jump back into a normal region of time. The situation becomes normalized. I allow the power to flow back into the life support and the lights come back on. Other systems spring back to order now that I am not diverting them. I release my stranglehold on the time rotor and it begins to move. After a pause the Time Lord begins checking readings. He quickly concludes that the controls are now safe to use. Ian puts a hand on the older man's shoulder and gives him a squeeze. The Doctor glances at him but Susan's sudden hug draws his attention away from whatever question that might have been forming.

"Oh, we're safe now," Susan says.

"Are you sure?" Barbara is cautious.

My pilot nods, "Yes. We can all relax. We're quite safe now. But it was a narrow squeak." Ian and Barbara move away. Finally feeling safe, the old man sighs.

Susan asks what happened, and why the fault locator didn't indicate the problem.

My Doctor explains to her, "It was the switch, it was still in place. You see there is a little spring inside it and it was stuck. It hadn't released itself. The switch hadn't broken down; therefore the fault locator couldn't give us any recognition. You see, let me give you a demonstration." He uses the torch to show her what happened. He turns the torch on, "Now look, when I put my thumb…on there, the light comes on. And it only stays on, so long as my thumb is pressing that switch. As soon as I take it off..." He lets his thumb up, "... a little spring inside releases the... the switch here, and out goes the light."

"Oh, I see. So if the spring were broken, it would be as if your finger were pressing it down all the time."

"Precisely. As simple as that," He sighs again. His suspicions have caused him to say and do some horrible things, he knows. "You know, my dear child. I think your old grandfather is going a tiny little bit around the bend." They laugh at this, "Well I think you were very brave, and I…I am proud of you."

"Grandfather, what about them? You said some terrible things to them," Susan indicates Ian and Barbara. "When I thought he was going to attack you, even I was against him."

The shame and rebuke that shows on my pilot's face is more than enough for Ian. The teacher looks up and can see the old man struggling with his emotions. He places a calming hand on Barbara's shoulder and then crosses over to the Time Lord, "Don't bother to say anything, Doctor." He lets off a light relieved laugh, "You know there are times, when I can read every thought on your face."

This causes my Doctor to echo the laugh, "Really? And I always thought you were a young man, without any recrimination in you." But as relieved as he is over Ian's easy forgiveness he can see that Barbara is going to be harder to apologize to. She's standing by the chair gazing off into space, hurt by the entire experience. Slowly, my Doctor goes over to her, "Well, er, as for you, young lady, well, you were absolutely _right_. With your instinct and intuition against my logic and you, er, succeeded. I mean, the blackouts and the still pictures and...and…and, er... and, er, the clock. Well, you read a story into those things and was determined to hold on to it. _We all owe you our lives_."

She is overwhelmed, "I... I..." It is more than she can face. More than she can deal with all at once. She leaves the room.

Behind her my pilot says, "You know, I really believe I have underestimated that young lady in the past, Charnow." This makes Ian cringe, but he says nothing, realizing that the Doctor is teasing him. "Well now, we can all start again eh? Yes... we can... er... Yes..." He looks as the young man with a twinkle in his eye, "But which? Hmm?" Ian laughs. "What are you laughing at, dear boy? Oh, really, you are..." He sets to work on the controls and places us safely in the Vortex.

I stay with Barbara as she flees the room, gently guiding her to an inner sanctuary, knowing that my pilot will not mind if she sees. Right now it is what Barbara needs. She's not aware of where she goes, the path her feet take, but she ends up in a garden. A rose garden. The soft tones of iridescence that shimmer on the soft white to silvery petals tell her that these are no ordinary Earth Roses, but from another place and another time. They exist under a pair of orange suns in a russet sky. She feels her upset peel away as wonder replaces it. She carefully settles down on a bench, surrounded by roses of a color that her mind identifies only as 'pearl'.

The scent is light, and close to what she expects, but it's slightly richer, like a touch of honey has been added to the mix. She shaking on the inside, numb. They nearly died. And once more, she never asked for this. To be threatened by being put off the ship – someplace unknown, in conditions that were completely dangerous… The tears flow without her knowledge of them. I do something for her that I have done for no other. I materialize as a silver spotted cat. She needs to be comforted, and my efforts have wounded her. I lightly leap up onto the bench next to her and butt my head into her hand. My form is slightly larger than a house cat, not quite a normal standard for the breed she is used to. More like a Lynx, although with shorter, sleeker fur. Barbara begins petting without thinking about it. It's my purr and weight as I settle into her lap that gets her attention.

"Well, who are you?" I simply look up at her with my police box blue eyes and hope that she can make the connection. Her fingers find the blue collar with its silver Gallifreyan symbols and the odd little tag that is blank on one side with the word, 'Verity' on the other. I purr louder. "Verity? That's an odd name for a cat. You rather remind me of a Lynx, pretty girl." She is starting to feel better. This is my goal, of course. I head butt her hand and kneed lightly into her robe to occupy her mind. The blank side of the tag takes on the script, 'Lynx'.

After a time I sense she is ready to leave. I hop off her lap and lead her back through the halls and passages until we reach the living areas and wardrobe room. She bends down and calls me back. I just turn and look at her swishing my very domestic-cat-like tail. Barbara looks around the room, and back at the cat. "Oh." Somehow I manage to give her a very human grin with my catlike face before I fade away as the sound of Susan's footsteps becomes louder, "Not an 'it' then? She?" Barbara puts a hand on my wall and feels the thrum. It is almost like a purr.

When Susan enters she finds Barbara still stroking the wall and smiling slightly. She quickly relays that they have landed but that it is cold outside. This draws Barbara away and back to the others. If Susan finds the behavior odd she says nothing about it and the older woman doesn't mention the form I've shown her. I doubt if I'll have to use it again. After she dresses for the cold the moves into the living area and sits down, still thinking about the things that were said. After a while the Doctor comes in and looks at her. Then he approaches, "I'd like to, er, talk to you, if I may." He settles next to her at her nod, "We've landed on a planet and the air is good, but it's rather cold outside."

"Susan told me."

Still feeling shame, the Time Lord says quietly, "Yes, you haven't forgiven me, have you?"

"You said terrible things to us."

He nods, "Yes, I suppose it's the injustice that's upsetting you, and when I made a threat to put you off the ship it must have affected you very deeply."

"What do you care what I think or feel?"

"Well, as we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves. Oh yes. Because I accused you unjustly, you were determined to prove me wrong. So, you put your mind to the problem, and, er, luckily you solved it," he told her.

Susan runs into the room, bundled up for the cold in a duffel coat, "Grandfather, we're going out now."

"Oh, please, yes. Do open the doors will you?"

She looks to Barbara, "Are you coming?"

Miss Wright glances at the Doctor, who is watching her with concern, then she looks back at Susan and smiles, remembering Lynx. "Yes."

"Good," Susan proclaims as she runs back into the console room.

"Oh, by the way, Susan has left you some wearing apparel, for outside. You know, we have a very extensive wardrobe here."

Barbara smiles at him, "Yes, _she_ gave me these," indicating the trousers she is now wearing. I know the teacher means me not Susan. And by the Doctor's reaction, Barbara seems to see that he understands this too.

He blinks and looks past her for a moment, remembering whispers and the sensation of bliss. Flying free as one that was two, through the time vortex. Rapture. Then it is gone, a tendril of smoke vanished into the wind. He glances at her slacks, "Yes, I think they're rather charming. We must look after you, you know? You're very valuable." I ache from the loss, the memory I snatch out of the air and bundle with the others. My brilliant Doctor. Fading like the last glow of the day. Dying slowly before my senses. Defiant to the end. He stands and picks up a coat from the table. With a dramatic flourish he holds it up for her to put on. Barbara laughs and slips into it. The he offers her his arm. "Shall we go?" Smiling, Barbara links her arm with his and they walk into the control room where Ian is waiting for them. He shows off the coat he's wearing and Barbara compliments him on it before Susan dashes in and pelts her with a handful of snow. This makes the older woman squeal and chase the younger one out into the expanse beyond. "Well, I think that's absolutely splendid Chesterton. Yes, it suites you. Always a trifle big for me. You know I acquired that Ulster from Gilbert and Sullivan."

"Oh, really? I thought it was made for two. Well, shall we join the ladies, Doctor?"

Laughing he says, "Yes, why not."

Moments later they hear Susan call, "Grandfather, look!"

It would seem that I've landed them in still yet another adventure… But I wonder if perhaps I can power down and rest a bit? There are self-repairs that I can run, as long as I have the time to complete them… But do I dare miss even a blink of the time My Doctor and I have remaining?


	3. to Dalek Invasion of Earth

AN: _This is written from the TARDIS's POV and covers "Marco Polo" to "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". A good portion of this is a zip past the adventures and focuses on how / why the 'Ship' or Verity (or Lynx) and the Doctor ended up with the relationship that they possess. The main exception is the scenes that take place in and around the ship. This concludes Susan's time with the crew.  
_Reviews are a lovely thing and I want to thank OtherMeWriter and FireSenshi2 for the ones gained on the last chapter.

**How the Doctor was won: Or the trials of trying to catch a stubborn Time Lord.  
**Part Three: Watching

I landed my Doctor and crew on the Roof of the World. I never intended to land them there, but such as things were I did anyhow. The damage I suffered didn't allow me to hold out any longer once I came into the gravity well of earth. The high mountains are the sort of place where time can stand still, where humans live generation after generation locked in unchanging beliefs and habits. Thus was the case when my crew was observed exiting what seemed to be a 'magical' flying craft far smaller than what was needed for four people to survive. I know landing here was a mistake, right off, if only because it means we will be here in this time far longer than any of us wish to be. The cold thin air is very difficult for my Doctor's weakened lungs to breathe. He's short tempered, and my current damaged condition does not lift his spirits.

While Ian and Barbara try to pinpoint which mountains I've landed them in it is Susan who guesses correctly. And although Ian would be quite happy with that, he's not going to like the fact that we are centuries before his own time. The simple fact is I need to do some self-repairs. I have been stressed to the point of almost tearing myself apart. As much as I dislike doing it, we are going to have to stay here in this time for a while. My pilot makes a cursory examination of the surface systems and tells me that he can see nothing wrong, no reason to be here at all. He's quite ready to hop on. I scream at him. As typical, he can't hear me. Fine. He wants some major reason to stay? I'll give him one. It's selfish of me, I know. The others will never know that I fried that circuit. The Doctor hurries out into the weak mountain light quite upset at the darkness inside the main room, "Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear! We're always in trouble! Isn't it extraordinary - it follows us everywhere!"

Ian turns and looks at him, "What's the matter?"

"All the lights in the ship have gone out! The whole circuit has burnt itself to a cinder, and added to that it affected the water - we haven't got any!"

"Well, the water's no bother, Doctor. I mean, we've got snow - plenty of it, but how about the heating?"

"Oh, the heating as well! Everything's gone to pot!" This causes Barbara to join in the scream fest. Soon Ian and she have stormed off to find help while the two Gallifreyans attempt to find and fix the problem. The situation is not nearly as dire as my Doctor might believe it to be; I would not let them freeze. I have energy, plenty, and would make them fuel for a fire if it came down to that. The situation with his failing memory goads me like a sharp spike might. With each passing day he becomes more of a stranger to me.

They find the damaged circuit before Ian and Barbara return. They loosen the part and disconnect it so the Doctor can carry it outside to look at it. The part should take just about the same amount of time to fix that I need to mend my internal systems. Understandably my pilot is distressed and flustered by this. It's an easy subsystem to repair however, and I know all the parts are held in the Parts Room that will be required for the fix. Ian and Barbara return, having spotted their observer, at least in part. The man follows them back to the others and Susan sees him. The Doctor only pauses a moment to put the part back inside before joining the others in giving chase. I'm left alone on the mountain. Feeling that my pilot is too far away for me to help I power down further and begin working on the self-repairs. The following dawn is bright and clear as only the high mountains can be. My crew, sans the Doctor, arrive with another group, only one of which is an European. I pay passing attention to the scrutiny I am given. The European says, "So, this is your caravan?"

Ian explains that I am called a TARDIS and that I move without the use of wheels. While the leader of the native warriors contends that my crew are evil spirits I sense that the other man believes such 'magic' may have use to him. He tells of witnessing levitation at the mental power of the Buddhist monks in the Kahn's court and inquires as to the size of my internal dimension. Barbara assures him that there is plenty of room for four inside me. But it is Ian again that tells the man that only the Doctor has the power to open and fly their caravan. Susan doesn't have reason to contradict him as she has yet to get a new key. Upon learning that something is broken within me the leader of this group decides to have me brought down to their camp. From there manages to convince my Doctor that the warriors are fearful of the magic inside his strange caravan and thus he must not enter me to work in the repairs. Although I have powered down I am aware that this man, Marco Polo, does not do this to assist but rather to meet his own goals. I am strapped to a wagon and carried to the waystation of Lop. The journey is a long one, and I am fully able to commence self-repairs to a degree that I thought was going to be impossible.

It is in Lop that the Doctor discovers his gracious 'host' intends to give me to the Kahn as a gift. He does not understand what it is that makes me what I am, nor the fact that I need the Doctor to function. However, he is right at I am a most magnificent gift. Unlike anything else on this Earth. My pilot's reaction is quiet fury. I've not felt this intense emotion in him for many a year. While Polo believes that the Doctor can make another TARDIS, and is right to a degree, he has no idea that I am – we are – bonded. Another would not be the same. I sense the tickle of awareness that the underlying connection and the fear draw to it. Even if he could make another, he couldn't bond with it. I'm not sure he knows how to anymore. The anger my Doctor feels is just shy of explosive violence. Instinctively I reach for him and jerk back at the painful reminder that he cannot hear or feel me. I weep as he storms away. Even Ian's attempt to change our host's mind makes my pilot angered, for he comes stomping back, somehow knowing that I need him close and overhears Ian saying, " -- I'm afraid you don't understand all the problems involved."

The Doctor snaps, "And neither do you, young man!" I believe that our connection is strained and that although he cannot feel me in the way he used to, he still knows that he needs to be near me. This makes him testy and cross. He jumps back into the argument with Polo, just because he feels slightly less jittery here than he does farther away. Barbara also joins in the argument, trying to make Polo see reason. She tells him that he does return home, that she knows this as a fact. His strange look at her is ignored. The Ian reminds him that only the Doctor has the power to make the caravan fly and Polo insists that the Buddhist monks can and will discover its secrets. The old Time Lord scoffs at him.

In the end Polo shouts, "I refuse to listen to any more. My mind is made up! Your caravan goes with me to Kublai Khan!" The entire situation hits my Doctor after Polo has stormed away and he begins to laugh. Hysterically. Barbara and Susan try to calm him, but the horror of the situation releases itself in the only way it can – disbelief and laughter. I feel so bad. He's quite distraught by this. And for once he doesn't know what to do to get out of this mess. If only I could reach him… But Time, both the flow of it and the Eternal, is on our side. And as always there is a plot afoot that needs to be foiled.

The next bit of our trip leads us into the vast Gobi Desert. The strain of being kept apart is wearing on my Doctor with every passing day, and this shows in his manner. He is surly and bitter. It reminds me of the time we spent apart on Gallifrey, when I had my heart bled of power. This explains much of his pervious risky behavior. His attitude grows darker and stormier as we venture farther and farther into the sandy wastes. His refusal to eat bothers me to no end and there is nothing I can do about it. While Ian manages to do what is seemingly impossible and maintain an air of civil companionship with their host who is more like a jailer, Susan is distraught on many levels. She knows her Grandfather needs his TARDIS; she can see this in his mind and his soul. He'd rather will himself to die than to go on without his ship. She doesn't know the why of this but her grandfather's lack of response to her tells her more that she ever wanted to know. She remembers faint impressions of her mother finding out her father had been killed in the war and how she just gave up the will to live. Her grandfather's current attitude – frighteningly enough – reminds her of that haunting sensation. It's no surprise to me that she is upset by it.

"We'll get the TARDIS back, Susan," Barbara tells her.

Susan suppresses her tears, unsure if she can explain what is happening, "Yes, but at Kublai Khan's Court, when it's too late." Her eyes focus on the stars. How can she reveal that her grandfather is dying? She knows he is. The despair rolls off of him in waves. He needs his TARDIS like everyone else needs air. Susan rapidly blinks, "We should be up there - another time, another galaxy."

Barbara remembers Lynx and cannot help but to smile, "Oh, we'll think of something." If only I could bottle up her faith and hoard it against the darkness… Wait. Why can't I? Why can't I give them all some of Barbara's light? I begin projecting that feeling of hope, but as ever, I cannot just give it to my crew. Instead it works to hearten everyone, even the enemy. I stop with that. It's better to reach out to one at a time.

"How? Ian playing chess with Marco? Grandfather being rude and sulking by himself?" Susan looks at Barbara, showing more of her years than she has before.

Barbara raises an eyebrow, "Oh, I didn't know he's sulking. Is he?"

"Well, he won't eat. He won't even talk to me."

I whisper a caress of feeling to Miss Wright and she smiles again, "Well, you know him better than I do. But I'd have said he was just feeling defenseless. He has a wonderful machine, capable of all sorts of miracles, and it's taken away from him by a man he calls a primitive. Look, TARDIS is the only home we have at the moment, and when we're in it, we feel safe and secure. But when we're out of it..." She gazes out across the desert feeling a ghost of what the Doctor is experiencing because I'm showing her how closely the Time Lord and I are bonded. After a moment she sighs.

Susan looks at her, wondering what it is that Barbara has learned about the time ship. Something has made her aware that her Grandfather's ship is much more than it seems to be. Did she just call the TARDIS 'home'? After a moment she asks, "Will he talk to me? Confide in me?"

"Oh, he's like a rubber ball. He'll come bouncing out of there soon full of ideas."

This relieves Susan and she goes back to looking at the stars. Barbara watches her for a while then shoos her to bed. Barbara stands there a while longer, looking at the stars and the sand and remembering the feel of a slightly larger than normal cat under her fingers. She glances at the time ship, where it sits on its wagon and sighs. There's no way to get close enough to even stroke the TARDIS's side with the warriors watching them. The forced separation must be torture for the Doctor. She heads back inside, watches the chess match. And then discovers that the sudden sandstorm has Susan out in it. When Susan is found the girl tells her that she went out to follow the Warlord Tegana when he left the camp. She is suspicious of him. Barbara does not tell the others, knowing that at the moment Tegana is in Polo's graces because he 'saved' Susan and another girl, Ping-Cho, and guided them back to camp. The only good thing that came out of this is that the Doctor begins to spend time with the others again.

Then someone destroys the water the caravan is relying on. They divert to the north in hopes of reaching an oasis. With little water the chances are very slim. Tegana sets off ahead of the others saying he will being water back to them once the last of the water rations are gone. The Doctor is strained by the situation, he's unable to maintain his naturally lower body temperature in the driving heat and passes out. As a concession Polo agrees that Susan and my pilot can ride inside me, but he demands that Ian and Barbara remain outside. I can at least do something to help him but not until it is cooler. The heat of the day would undo anything I tried. But the cool of the night will let me help them.

I feel that the slow movement of the caravan does not stop at all that night, but this assists me. I begin to use block-transfer equations to make water. There's no time for containers. I simply allow it to form and run over my walls, drip off the ceiling, wherever it may form. With the sunrise I change my formula to keep it cool inside, to make the water condense even more. I can only hope that it is enough. My pilot thinks at first that he is dreaming, "Oh... water... water... water!..." the droplets are not much, but it serves to rouse him. He quickly can see what I'm trying to do. He leaps up and over to Susan, "Susan, Susan, child. Susan, wake up. Wake up, quickly!" She blinks at him as she tries to focus. "Fetch some cloth and cups." Her response is less than promising. He shakes her slightly, "We must catch the water... we mustn't waste a drop! Come along, child, wake up, quickly! Look at it... it's streaming down the walls. Look, we must collect it. It's water! We must... quickly... quickly... before the ship heats up in the sun... hurry child... hurry please..." With sudden alarm she realizes what he's saying. She rushes to comply, gathering up clean cloths and containers and frantically helping him sponge up all the water. Amazingly they share this bounty with Polo and his men, although I do not believe that they should. I cannot stop my Doctor from being generous. That goes against his nature.

Only once the caravan is moving again to the oasis do I relax. This is not what I had foreseen. The chances of these events are shifting like the sands of the desert. I realize that it is my – our – being here that is causing these changes. The plots of the power seekers vie with one another and I am at the center of them. But the situation has made my pilot realize the need to be crafty and he uses the limited access to me to make another key and to gather together the parts he needs. He believes it will take a week to fix the damage. I wonder if he will get that week.

Polo demands the key before they set out again. The Doctor hands over one without a fuss. But he hides the other, determined to get the circuit repaired so they can leave. His next chance is at the waystation of Tun-Huang. Once there he shows Ian the spare key. The situation with making the repairs is interrupted by Barbara following Tegana and the resulting distrust that the Warlord manages to sow between Polo and my crew. While this is going on, it only serves to make Susan's friend Ping-Cho more determined to spend time with Susan and listen to what she says because they are being forced apart.

Soon we are on the road to Shang-Tu, following the Yellow River. Progress on the circuit has slowed because there is almost always someone watching me when we rest, but by the time we reach the waystation at Lan-Chow my Doctor estimates one or two more days should do it. However he's sure that there will be trouble because someone outside the four of them knows of the second key. Unfortunately this means that it is likely others know of it as well.

Each stolen night is a balm to his soul, he cannot hear my whispers of feel my emotions but he relaxes and is soothed all the same by his time inside working on repairs. This is how it has always been for us. Once we reach Sinju the repairs can be completed and then we shall fly free… unless the situation changes unexpectedly. Which of course it does when he are caught upon exiting me. The Doctor manages to finish the repairs, alright enough, but when he leaves he is spotted by Polo who has been brought there by the warlord. The second key is forced from his hand and Polo formally claims me for his Kahn. The Doctor warns him that he will never be able to enter the ship, and that he will never tell him how either. As they are dragged away the Doctor calls, "You poor, pathetic, _stupid_ savage." He then starts to laugh again. This worries Ian to no end. The last time the Doctor worked himself into this state it took a brush with death to snap him out of it.

Polo then sets the four travelers into their own tent, treating them as captives instead of guests. The journey takes them into a Bamboo forest. Guards are set on their tent, now, nightly. The Doctor wonders why he and Susan even bothered to try to save these people in the desert. Even Ian has changed his attitude; "We can't go on like this! We must get out." He tosses a plate to the ground and it breaks. They determine that they must reach several objectives, one is escape from the tent while avoiding the guard. The second is getting a key back, some how…. Even if it means taking Polo hostage. Ian picks up part of the plate. He can cut his way out of the tent, deal with the guard and then they will face off with Polo. Only, once again things don't go according to plan. Ian manages to get out, but discovers that the Guard has been killed already. Ian decides at that point that he must warn Polo about a potential attack. He lets the other three know before moving off to warn the man. He sneaks into his tent and rouses him from slumber, "Marco, Marco... wake up." The man goes for his blade, "No, no, it's all right." Amazingly Polo listens to him, "Marco, the guard's dead, I think we're in for a bandit attack."

"Bandits? Where's Tegana?" he quickly rouses.

"He's outside. I didn't tell him - I thought it best to tell you first." Polo and Ian rush outside and the warlord is ordered to wake the bearers and gather weapons. It takes some convincing, but the man does not dare refuse. Polo sends Susan and Barbara into the tent where Ping-Cho is sleeping with orders to keep her safe. Rather quickly it is determined that they will need more than steel to drive the attackers off. Ian comes up with a plan to use green bamboo as noisemakers. Polo agrees. Even though he knows that Ian was trying to escape he must admit that the four are honest people, driven by desperation. They gather plenty of the green wood, and as the moon rises the battle is joined. The Doctor provides matches that easily light the piles of green hollow wood. As the fight proceeds the bamboo begins to explode. The sound is enough to drive the attacking Mongol warriors away. That and the fact that Tegana kills the leader of the attacking group. The Doctor notes that the two men seemed to know each other. But the survivors celebrate the route anyhow.

By the next mid-day they have stopped again. Polo revokes their being prisoners of the Kahn, but refuses to actually let them go. In fact they are to be rushed on by horseback, six days hard ride with the bulk of the caravan to follow. The strained connection between Time Lord and Ship is about to be stressed to the breaking point. There is nothing either one of them can do to make it any different. By the next day we have reached Cheng-Ting and I know events are being slotted into place that might alter centuries of history. I am moved into the stables where the devious Tegana plots to have me stolen and taken north. The Doctor has but once chance at escape… and Susan's delay is the thing that keeps it from happening. But I at least am able to tell that he will survive this next trial, because he becomes even more determined after touching the controls to get away from here.

It is Ian and Ping-Cho that discover that I've been stolen. He and the young Chinese girl set off to find me. They are not far behind and their horse is faster. Soon they have located where I am and discover that it is Tegana who has ordered the Doctor's ship stolen. The warlord says, "I serve Noghai. And with that, he will rule the world. Noghai's sorcerers will reveal its secrets." The Kahn's warriors come into the clearing, stopping Tegana from killing Ian and Ping-Cho. Tegana quickly changes his tune, "My name is Tegana - the Warlord. Get rid of these men. They were trying to steal the Khan's property." He says of Ian and Ping-Cho.

"That's not true," Ian says.

The captain says, "I am Ling-Tau, captain and courier in the great Khan's service, I remember both of you. You were with Messr Marco Polo's caravan."

Ping-Cho says, "He is the thief - we caught him with that." she indicates the warlord.

"Pardon me, my lady. I have not the authority to judge in this dispute. It's a matter for the great Khan. He has left the summer palace at Shang-Tu, my Lord. You will see him in Peking." With that Ian, Ping-Cho, Tegana, and the guards escort me to the palace in Peking. It is many days travel. When we arrive Ian and Ping-Cho are taken away, accused of the theft that Tegana engineered. This angers Barbara, but like the rest of it there is nothing to be done about it.

I am brought before the Kahn. "So this is our flying caravan! Thank you for recovering it for us, Lord Tegana," the Old Kahn says. Then he announces, "The lady Ping-Cho has been excused of complicity in the theft."

"Good fortune gave me the opportunity of serving the great Khan. The Khan shows much wisdom and compassion. What crimes she committed were done under the influence of others. The old magician, my lord, tried several times to regain the caravan."

"Were there other attempts to steal it? Marco did not mention them to us." Polo enters the room, "Marco, thank you for our gift."

The man bows, "I am the Khan's obedient servant."

"We are glad to know. But then, there were other attempts to steal the caravan? Why did you not invoke our laws? They were on our soil, therefore, subject to our laws. Why did you not invoke them?"

Polo looks at the warlord, sensing that he's going to need much honesty here, "To have done so would have been unjust, my lord. Our laws are alien to them. The caravan belonged to them, my lord."

Tegana burst into the conversation, "My lord, I can hold my peace no longer. Forgive me. How can that be? You claimed it in the Khan's name? You wear the Khan's gold seal. It gives you your authority to take what you will."

Making a decision Polo says, "It was wrong of me to do so. When the cause is just. This was not."

The Khan is curious now, "What was it then?"

"Selfish."

The Khan tells him then that he won't let him return to Venice because he won the craft from the Doctor. He then tells him to bring him the key after the feast, and that he is distressed and angered by Polo's conduct. After Polo leaves the Khan turns to Tegana, "You'll also attend us after the banquet, Lord Tegana. We'll discuss the terms of our settlement with Noghai. But we... be on guard against you."

Tegana looks at him with surprise, "What have I that the Khan should fear?"

"The power of persuasion," the Kahn says as he shoos him out.

All through the banquet I sit, listening to the events around me and pining for my Doctor. But I've not even caught a glimpse of him here. During the meal the man meant to marry Ping-Cho dies. I am there when the relieved girl is told. The Kahn offers to let her stay in his court, as the man's widow, even though the marriage was to take place in the morning. He then asks her what she thinks of the mysterious travelers, and she honestly answers, "They are my friends, my lord. As they will always be."

The Khan means to set Ping-Cho with Ling-Tau and calls Polo to his side so that the young man can escort her away. Once the Empress has left the Khan says, "She is forthright and honest. We trust her, as we once did you. Our mind dwells upon your conduct, Marco, and we've decided that you have to prove yourself worthy of our trust. If you fail this to do, we take from you our patronage, banish you from our Court, and let your enemies fall upon you. You have the key of the caravan?"

"Yes, my lord. But you would be well advised to have the Doctor with you when you open it."

"Fetch him, Marco, fetch him. No, wait! Not until our audience with the Lord Tegana is concluded."

Polo leaves the Khan, retaining the keys, and goes to get the Doctor. The Khan meets with Tegana and the Warlord says, "I promised Noghai to make an end of this matter." He then lunges at the Khan with his sword. The guard in the room moves in to stop him and is killed by the better swordsman.

Polo rushes, "Tegana!" He steps in to defend the Kahn. The fight is frenetic and dances from one end of the room to the other, but slowly Polo gets the upper hand. He forces his opponent into a corner and knocks the blade from his hand. Polo snatches it up as Ling-Tau and the rest of the warriors rush into the room. They move to hold Tegana.

"We warned you, Tegana, those who rise against us will be humbled. You must die," the Khan tells him as the Doctor and his group enters the room. The warlord grabs a blade and impales himself on it before he can be struck down. Susan screams.

"Take him away," says the victor. The guards immediately obey Polo without hesitation. While this is going on Polo turns to the Doctor and thrust the keys into his hand, "Doctor, take the keys quickly! Now go! Go!"

The Doctor, surprised, says, "Thank you. Thank you." Then he addresses Susan, "Come along..."

Ping-Cho doesn't want to be the cause of yet another delay, "Susan, goodbye. Your caravan, quickly!"

Ian, Barbara and the Doctor are already inside, Susan says, "Ping-Cho... Goodbye!" she turns and hurries to my door. As soon as she crosses the threshold the door closes and the strange blue box dematerializes. Verity tries to give them all the feeling of warmth. Barbara carefully strokes one wall and pauses to feel the faint vibration. To her it is like a purr. She never thought that she would want to get away from Earth.

"I'm going to change my clothes." Barbara says before she heads off into the wardroom room. A moment later Susan echoes her comment.

Ian just rests both hands on the console, careful to not touch the actual instruments and closes his eyes. He never thought he'd be so grateful.

"Tea. That's what I've been forgetting. I think I'll have a cup. Would you like one, Chesterton?"

"Real English tea, Doctor?"

The old man chuckes, "Fresh brewed, real honest tea. Yes. English? Maybe… or French. I'll have to see what I've got left in the kitchen. Come along, come along. It'll be a while yet before we land."

They meet the girls on the way, both whom inform them that the water situation seems to be corrected now. The kitchen is quite a ways away from the main door but they find it in fairly good time. The kettle is waiting and filled, ready to heat up. The Doctor puts it on and rummages through the cabinets. In short time he's got tea and tea bags, and strainers for loose leaf. And biscuits in about fifty different choices. Barbara says, "Doctor? Why didn't you tell us you had a kitchen?"

"Because it is quite far from the door, and I usually don't want to walk all the way here. I don't keep it well stocked anyhow. Susan and I use the food machine most times."

"Maybe if you asked, your wonderful ship would move it closer to the door." Barbara steps in to help him with the tea.

The Doctor manages a smile at her, "And just maybe I'll do that. Anyone want cream or sugar or honey in their tea?" He sits the pots, pulled right out of the cabinet, on the table.

The tea allows him to hear the caress of his ship against his soul for the first time in a very long while. He drinks several cups before heading back to the control room. I encourage this behavior. As a reply he fondly pets the walls as he leaves. Susan watches him go and notices the fact that he's trailing his hand over the ship. She looks at Barbara after Ian has left, "That's odd. I've never see Grandfather pet the TARDIS before."

Barbara looks up at her, guilty of doing the same thing, "Eh?" I purr in her mind as she realizes that she's petting the table.

"You're doing it too? Why?"

"Oh, Susan… Don't you feel her? The TARDIS has been welcoming us home ever since we came back aboard."

The young woman sits quietly for a moment. "Yes. But she always feels that way to me." At that moment the pitch changes, "We're landing! Come on." They rush back to the control room.

Gathering around the console with the two men they hear Ian ask, "Any radiation, Doctor?"

I hum to my pilot, he smiles and strokes the panel as he takes in the readings, "No, nothing to speak of. The counter's hardly reading anything. Shall we take a look?" The Doctor turns on the scanner.

Barbara says, "Oh look, that's the sea, isn't it?" The screen shows a beach and a very still sea.

"Yes and sand! Grandfather, I wonder where we are?" Susan asks.

The Doctor consults the readings with a frown as Ian says, "Well, one things for sure - we're not at Southend!"

This generates some laugher. Susan pleads, "Grandfather, can we go and have a look? Can we?"

"Yes, yes, I don't think... I don't see why not. There's nothing... no danger about." The Doctor motions for the others to come with him, "Come on, let's go and have a look." I send out a pulse of warning, because things are not what they seem here.

The response I get is a light, fond pat and Ian's frown. Susan opens the doors and Ian shakes his head, "No. Well, I thought when you switched the scanner on… I thought I saw something move up there... Oh, probably just a shadow."

"Well let's go outside and have a look."

Carefully the crew steps from the safety I provide, exiting into a foreign world. They notice that the rocks are very jagged and that the sea is completely mirror-like. "It is the sea. Why, it's beautiful! Grandfather, do you think it's safe to go for a swim?" Susan asks.

Ian comments, "Yes, absolutely calm. Not even a ripple."

"It isn't frozen, is it?" Barbara wonders.

The Doctor catches Susan. For once, he is paying attention to my urgings for caution, "Oh, no, no, no, not at the moment, child. However inviting that water looks, we don't know what sort of creatures may be lurking beneath its' surface. And Barbara, it's much too warm for the sea to be frozen."

They move further away. "It's so quiet!" Barbara says. Ian agrees with her, noting that there's no animal life or birds at all. She points out, "And there's nothing growing." A little bit later they conclude that the sharp rocks and 'sand' is glass. Very sharp glass. The Doctor begins to wonder why the glass was put here. But Susan makes the most fearful discovery: the 'water' is acid. Luckily it's her shoe and not her foot that dissolves in the tidal pool she finds. She comes back to me in Ian's boots to get some more shoes. The young woman doesn't see the odd websuited figure that is examining my three-dimensional interface because it hides before she reaches the blue box. Susan takes Ian's boots off before stepping into the control room.

I try to convince her to stay inside by hiding her shoes, interfering with the lights, even sticking the door closed, but I don't dare actually contact her again. Her reaction to me from the last time has told me quite enough about how she perceives me. Susan is a determined young lady, however, and manages to thwart all my obstacles, finding a pair of shoes even though she must do so in the dark, and managing to get the door open in spite my best efforts to keep them closed. She doesn't even take a second notice of the trouble I'm giving her. Stubborn girl.

Because of the tea I'm still in contact with the other group. The Doctor walks up to Ian and Barbara, "Sea of acid, Mmm. Astonishing. You know, in all my travels I've never come across anything like this before. However, Susan wasn't harmed anyway."

"No, she was a bit frightened at losing her shoes but she's gone back to the ship for another pair," Barbara tells him.

"Yes, and if you'd had your shoes on, my boy, You could have lent her yours. You mustn't get sloppy in your habits, you know," the old man says to Ian. Ian has the grace to laugh. "Good gracious!" The Doctor heads down the beach a bit farther, having seen some transparent torpedoes.

Ian and Barbara follow him, "It looks like a glass torpedo."

"Or a one-man submarine. Well, it's certainly designed for going under the water." _Or in this case, acid_.

Barbara quickly finds another one, and calls out, "Doctor! There's another one over here... and there's something inside it!"

While this is going on Susan leaves the TARDIS and spots a trail of footprints that leads toward the center of the island. She calls out one time, gets no answer and decides to follow the trail. She is not aware that she is being followed herself… Forgetting my earlier vow to not contact her, I try to warn her, but she's not paying attention.

Ian gets the top off the fourth sub, while the Doctor points out the crack, "See that crack along there? That's where the acid must have seeped in." Ian uses the Doctor's walking stick to slide the object out of the sub.

"It's a protective suit!" says Barbara. "Look, There's a tear in the material here."

I then turn my attempts to my pilot, sending him a 'shout' of alarm and warning. "Yes well, I think we ought to go back to the ship and try and find Susan. She should have caught up with us by now. Come along!" The Doctor gets up. Ian still lacks shoes. As they carefully move across the glassy 'sand' the science teacher points out the building in the center of the island, "Good! Good! Now perhaps we might learn who it is uses these strange ships. Anyway, let's go back to the ship and find Susan. Later, perhaps, a little visiting, I think." That Ian can agree to. They pick their way cautiously back to the TARDIS. It is quite clear however that Susan is not there. They quickly conclude that she must have gone to look at the building. The Doctor says, "Yes, sand here and glass on the beach. I'm beginning to think that sea of acid is a defense barrier."

"What you mean is, that all visitors are unwelcome?" Barbara has a bad feeling about this.

"Yes, it would seem so."

On that note they head off to check out the building in the hopes that they can find Susan. It is nearly half a day later when they return. Barbara says, "Ian, wait a minute. The Doctor's miles behind. I don't know about you but I felt terrible leaving that old man. We seemed to be his last hope."

"Yes, I wish there had been something we could have done for him." Ian agrees.

What he doesn't know is that there's no way to leave this place unless they do help that old man. The Doctor's arrival soon brings this fact to light, "Well, well, don't just stand there, come along, come along, keeping me waiting," he snaps. The other three laugh at this. But the Doctor comes to a halt in front of his ship and frowns. There's a humming sound filling the air. The Time Lord mumbles under his breath a very choice swearword in a language that he knows doesn't translate and then says, "What..." It seems as if the very air has become solid.

"What is it?" Barbara exclaims.

"It's some sort of invisible barrier! What do you make of it, Doctor?"

The look on the Doctor's face is one of dark fury. "I don't know, I don't know, there's no substance here." He indicates to Susan, "Have a look round the side, child, go along. Is it a circular barrier?"

She does as he's asking her to do and then says, "It's goes all the way round. There aren't any corners to it."

"No, of course, there wouldn't be. No, the molecules would be at their weakest." He shows some delight over the technology even as he's angered at being denied his ship once again, "It's fascinating, Chesterton. Yes, I've got it; I've got it! Do you know, I think a force barrier has been thrown up around the ship!"

At that point another voice fills the air, "I am sorry you have forced me into keeping you from your ship. But your refusal to help me left me no alternative! If you help me find the keys of Marinus I will let you have free access to your machine... when you have delivered all the keys to me. If not, you will stay on the island without food or water. The choice is yours."

Ian shouts back at him, "Choice? What choice?" They are greeted with silence. Having no alternative they tromp back to the building.

Several very long and lonely days pass before they return. I ponder this. What is my fate to be if they don't return? How can I find my pilot? Should I lock onto the ring and try to reach him? But before I can do anything they do return. The Doctor rushes inside. He's consumed something over the course of the last few days that gives him better contact with me. I try to spark his memories, shoring his mind against the effects of his aging, bathing him in compassion and love now that he can temporarily connect with me. He's not going to make it too much longer, I fear. But this I keep from him. He lets the connection with me fill him, trying to store the sensation, knowing it will fade. Then with a sigh he exits back out onto the beach where Susan is waiting for him. "Everything all right, grandfather?" There's another young woman with her.

The Doctor looks at his granddaughter fondly, "Yes, my child, chase the others up will you?" Susan agrees and heads off to find Barbara and Ian. In her wake my pilot turns to the other woman, "I'm glad to have this moment alone with you Sabetha. I want to speak of your father. You know, he was a very wise and brilliant man and I know how you felt when you learned of his death."

She says sadly, "And his life's work destroyed."

"Oh no, no, no, no, I wouldn't say that. His work will go on only not quite in the same way. But I don't believe that man was made to be controlled by machines. Machines can make laws but they cannot preserve justice, only human beings can do that. Now I only hope that you'll carry on his good work, please?" His words gain him a smile, "Goodbye. Bless you, my child." He's been too long away from his own 'mission' and heads back inside his ship as the rest of the crew hurries up. Susan, Ian, and Barbara say their good byes as the sound of my systems powering up fills the air. My Doctor calls, "Susan!"

As the native couple that they spent their days helping walk away Barbara says, "Oh dear, I shall miss them."

Ian shakes his head, "Come on, Barbara." He steers her into the blue box that he's began to see as 'home' and the door closes behind them. As I leave this strange world I believe another attempt at getting the teachers home is in order. Earth will be my next attempt. It is the wish, hidden away, of Barbara's to experience a period of history that she has studied that pulls me off course this time. I quite like the history teacher, and so I see the opportunity to reward her and take it. Perhaps though the lessons to be taught here are just a bit on the harsh side. No, Barbara has been helpful but quick to judge and hasty to change things to her point of view. Now she needs to face the reality of what she's read and live the history that she claims to be an expert of. I land in a dark tomb and signal that all is safe.

Barbara is the first one out, with Susan right behind her. She spots the mummy in its elaborate robes and ornate mask that lays in eternal slumber on a stone slab that dominates the small chamber. Pottery and jewelry, gifts and offerings meant for afterlife, surround it. The history teacher is excited, as I knew she would be, "Look at that! It's an Aztec mask. He must have been a priest."

Susan nods and says, "Well, the Aztecs were Mexicans. We must be on Earth again." But Barbara is quite busy studying the various bits on the slab, picking up a necklace for a better look. The dark haired teen continues, "I wonder what year it is?"

"Oh, he must have died around 1430, I should think. All these things belong to the Aztecs' early period," Barbara tells her.

Impressed, Susan responds, "That's what I call really knowing your subject."

It must be fate, because the teacher places the necklace down and tries on a bracelet that looks like a golden coiled serpent. As it fits perfectly she promptly forgets that it is on her arm, "Ah well -- that was one of my specialties, Susan."

Susan picks up a knife with an obsidian blade, "Well, what little I know about them doesn't impress me. Cutting up people's hearts."

"Oh, that's only one side to their nature. The other side was highly civilized."

To this Susan retorts, "The Spanish didn't think so."

"Oh, they only saw the acts of sacrifice," Barbara replies as she looks over more of the relics. "That was the tragedy of the Aztecs. Their whole civilization was completely destroyed, the good as well as the evil." It is at this point that Susan finds the way to open the passage into the next chamber. It's one way only but none of them know that yet. Barbara, not thinking of any danger, is the first through into the next room. Susan decides to make sure her Grandfather and Ian know which way Barbara has gone and returns to the TARDIS door to wait. While she is gone the portal into the next room closes. Although Barbara has been warned to not wander off she is mesmerized by the pristine state of the chambers. "Its perfect!"

An Aztec priest, who has come to leave veneration to Yetaxa, the individual interred here, discovers her. He threatens her with punishment for trespassing then spots the bracelet she is wearing. This elevates Barbara in his mind to the status of reincarnated. His approach caused Barbara to back away and she finds the portal is closed.

Soon after, the others emerge from the tomb. I know it shall be a lengthy while before I see them again. It is a danger and a risk. Barbara needs to learn that small changes can be made but large ones will correct themselves, no matter what she wants.

It is Ian that I see first, as he enters the tomb through a secret portal that opens under Yetaxa's burial slab. His quick mind spots the method used to keep the door open. It consists of a small projection, rope, and muscle. Ian attaches the length of material that he's found to the projection and carries the bulk of it with him as he exits the room again. Outside there is a sacrifice in progress designed to make the sun emerge from darkness, and when it is over Susan will be flogged for her independent nature. The start of the eclipse provides the cover Ian needs to muscle the door open and for the four to escape. Ian tosses his warrior's helmet aside as he flees the throne room for the tomb. The priests and guards decide that the sun is of greater import and return to the ritual.

Barbara pauses next to the mummy and removes her headdress and jewelry. "We failed..."

The Doctor sadly places a hand on her shoulder, "Yes, we did. We had to."

The cloak is the next item she removes, "Then what's the point of traveling through time and space? We can't change anything. Nothing. Tlotoxl had to win. And the one man I had respect for...I deceived. Poor Autloc. I gave him false hope - and in the end, he lost his faith." The coiled serpent bracelet is the last to go.

"Yes," the Doctor says to her, " but -- He found another faith. A better. And that's the good you've done. You failed to save a civilization - but at least you helped one man." At this the history teacher smiles. She heads into the time ship, the door already being unlocked by Susan.

I know that there has been an unintended side effect to this trip. My pilot pauses and stares at the mummy. Then he removes a medallion from his pocket and places it next to the corpse. I try to tell him to keep the token as I know it means a lot to him. He's felt something important here and I want him to have the reminder of it. This makes him hesitate then return for the item. He caresses it with his fingers and I see the image of a woman in his mind. Her name was Cameca, and for a brief while they were engaged. He has brushed love, and the warmth of it makes him happy. I reassure him that this is OK. The medallion slips into his pocket and he smiles to himself. He then picks up his walking stick, a gift from the Kahn, and enters into his TARDIS. Without a word he activates the controls and we depart from that time and place.

Ian, Barbara, and Susan all rush for the bathing areas and new clothes. I can't say I blame them, as the area they were in was hot and humid. The Doctor sets the controls and lets me chose where to go. Unusual freedom he's given me, but then he figured out an exact time and place and knows how to get back to where Ian and Barbara belong should they ask now to go home. Only the couple doesn't ask. So I spot something where the four of them can set things back on the proper course and settle down. That is, after all, why my Doctor wanted to be a Time Lord – correcting the course of time so that the universe is in general a better place.

It takes him a little while to notice that we've come to a rest. When he does he ponders the readings as they are showing movement still although there's no power coursing through my systems. I giggle. The Doctor shakes his head at Susan over the readings. Ian approaches, "What's the matter, Doctor?"

"We have a bit of a mystery, my boy. It's my instruments."

Susan takes up the thread, "Yes. According to these controls here, we've stopped."

"And those," the Doctor points to the offending part of the console, "instruments say that we're still moving..."

"Perhaps we've landed on top of something," Ian suggests.

"Or inside something..." Barbara adds.

Everyone looks over at the teacher. "Mmm?" the Doctor ponders this a moment.

Barbara just looks back at them before Susan finally asks, "What did you mean, Barbara, inside something?"

"Perhaps that's why we still appear to be moving," Ian agrees.

"How's the scanner, Doctor?" Barbara says to my pilot. She can feel that I'm amused, at the very least.

At this the Doctor returns to the controls, "Covered with static. Let's try it again, Susan." His granddaughter reactivates the screen but gets the same result.

Ian's scientific mind turns to the problem, "That could be caused by an unsuppressed motor."

"Yes, or a magnetic field," he agrees.

Susan asks if they are going to go outside, and the group spends a moment pondering their mutual eagerness to explore the unknown. Ian finally realizes, "That's one thing about it, Doctor. We're certainly different from when we started out with you. We've had some pretty rough times and even that doesn't stop us. It's a wonderful thing, this ship of yours, Doctor. It's taken us back to prehistoric times, the Daleks..."

Susan adds, "...Marco Polo, Marinus..."

Barbara finishes with, "...and the Aztecs! Oh, we've all changed."

The Doctor chuckles, "Yes, it all started as a mild curiosity in a junkyard and now its turned out to be quite a, quite a great spirit of adventure, don't you think? However, now, let's get back to this little problem. Open the door, Susan. I shalln't be happy until I've solved this little mystery."

As Susan operates the door controls Ian says, "Have you checked everything, Doctor?" but then he's learned to read some of the controls too, "Yes, yes, plenty of fresh air, temperature normal." They turn to look out the doors. They can see a futuristic control room. "You were right, Barbara. We have landed inside something."

"It's a spaceship!" The Doctor confirms. Barbara beams at the correct interpretation she's made. They emerge from the safety of the blue box into a large room dominated with a giant control bank of instruments and panels and a large screen. There are two humans seated in front of it that do not move even as they approach. "Close the door, Susan." She locks it before following the others. As she catches up the Doctor continues, "Let us be careful. There's been some kind of catastrophe here." They pass two circular doors as they cross the room to the humans

Ian moves to the male, carefully raising his head and placing his fingers on the man's neck, "Dead."

"This one's a girl," Susan states.

Barbara steps up and performs the same examination that Ian did, "I'm afraid she's dead too. What can have happened? I can't see a wound or anything."

They puzzle this over and decide to return to the TARDIS. Barbara, because of her growing connection with the psychic nature of the time capsule shares both Susan and the Doctor's sensing that there's more here than meets the eye. While Susan wants to leave, the Doctor wants to solve the riddle of what happened, even if the clues make no sense as they are. The timepieces should have run for a day after death, but the bodies are still warm to the touch. Something is off here. Finally he heeds the desires of the two women and the start back to the TARDIS. Just a Susan moves to unlock the door the male 'body' slumps forward onto his control station.

"His heart had stopped beating, Doctor. He was dead!" Ian says in alarm. They rush back to the man who is mumbling. "What do you want?" The fellow directs Ian to retrieve a small transparent cylinder. This item, whatever it is, restores him to normal and he directs Barbara to assist the woman. While she puts up a slight protest she eventually follows the man's directions. Ian moves back to the Doctor, "They were both dead."

The man walks over to them, "When you found us we were in a very long sleep but we weren't dead. My name is Maitland. This is Carol Richmond, my fellow astronaut. The cylinder is a heart resuscitator."

As Barbara and Carol walk up to them the Doctor asks, "Tell me, are you from the Earth?"

Maitland confirms that they are, but that they've landed in the 28th century. Then Carol says that they should leave while they can and her captain agrees, "Yes, you will have to. There is only danger for you here, you must go."

And although the Doctor insists that he's learned to not meddle in the affairs of others he can't resist the urge to help these people, "Now, why are you in trouble?"

Maitland, having had Ian, Barbara, and now the Doctor all ask him for details gives in, "Very well, I'll try to explain. Out there is a planet we call the Sense Sphere. Its inhabitants, the Sensorites, have always prevented us from leaving this area of space." He goes on to say, "They not only control our craft; they have some influence over us as well. Somehow they have control over our brains. They are hostile, these Sensorites, but in the strangest possible ways. They don't let us leave this area of space and yet they don't attempt to kill us."

Susan finally asks, "What had happened when we found you?"

"Well the same thing that's happened many times before. They put us into a deep sleep that gives the appearance of death, and yet they've never made any actual effort to destroy us," Carol replies.

"Far from it. We both have healthy recollections of them returning from time to time to our ship to actually feed us. But -- The Sensorites may try to prevent you from leaving."

And in fact that is what the Sensorites manage to do – by removing the locking mechanism for the door they seal my dimensions closed. Being cut off in such a manner is difficult to endure but the Doctor turns his attention to helping these people in any way he can. He discovers that the Sense Sphere is rich in molybdenum, and the threat of being mined is the likely cause of the Sensorites' attack.

Susan's developing psychic powers allow her to communicate with the native peoples; "The Sensorites want to know if it's alright for them to talk to you." The Doctor agrees, as long as they are not threatened.

"What is it you want of us? Why won't you let these space-people go back to their Earth, mm?" The Doctor asks as he comes fact to face with their captures.

"None of you can ever again can ever leave the area of the Sense-Sphere. Once before we trusted Earthmen - to our cost! They caused us a fearful affliction. We shall not allow it to happen again."

"What do you expect us to do, drift around forever?" Maitland inquires.

"No, you will all come back with us. A special area has been prepared for you on the sense-Sphere. There you will live and there you will be looked after. You will do exactly as we tell you because you have no choice, none of you! We intend taking you down to the Sense-Sphere, but we do not wish to harm you in any way."

The Doctor ruffles, "My party does have a choice, and I assure we have no intention of spending the rest of our lives with you! Now listen to me both of you. You've taken the lock of my ship and I want it returned immediately."

"You are in no position to threaten us," the Sensorites tell him.

"I don't make threats, but I do keep promises - and I promise you I shall cause more trouble than you bargained for... If you don't return my property!"

This causes the aliens to cower with their hands over their ears. "We must decide what we shall do," they are told before the Sensorites retreat.

"What did they mean decide?" Barbara asks.

"Oh they might have been referring to Susan," the Doctor contends, watching his granddaughter closely. She's growing up, having been with these humans for a bit and seeing things through more adult eyes for a change. He expects he's going to have to do something soon about that and when he does neither of them are going to be happy about it. But the time is coming when she'll need to go live her own life…

"The Sensorites only spoke to me."

He sighs, "Next time - if there is an next time - they might try and control your mind child. Like they have to these two people." Susan frowns at him, but he turns his attention to other problems, "They're not invincible, no-no-no. Did any of you notice the peculiarity in their eyes?" He gets negatives from everyone. With a eye roll he says, "It's a fallacy of course that cats can see in the dark, they can't; but they can see better than we humans because the iris of their eyes dilates at night. Yes...huh! Haha! The Sensorites eyes are the exact opposite to that of a cats. The Sensorites eyes were completely dilated, that is enormous in light."

Ian gets it, "Conclusion, is that they would contract in darkness."

"Exactly, and that is our best weapon! The Sensorites will be frightened in the dark."

Susan shakes her head, "But you can't be sure of that. You're only sure that they can't see in the dark."

"I very much doubt, my child, that they can see in the semi-darkness."

Barbara can see why Susan is questioning her grandfather and takes up the same line, "How can you be sure that the Sensorites will be frightened of the dark?"

"My dear Barbara, wouldn't you be afraid if you couldn't see your enemies, mm?" He then turns his attention to Ian, having drunk tea and feeling some of his old abilities trickling back. His expression is curious, as if he's not felt this power in ages, which he hasn't, of course. "Thank you for your admiration my dear boy, thank you." He pats Ian on the arm.

Confused, the science teacher protests, "Well I never said a word!"

"Ha-ha, telepathy! You know telepathy isn't only a prerequisite of the Sensorites. I know sometimes what you're thinking! Hm-hm! Hm-hm!" This is a source of amusement for a moment.

Then Susan looks up and frowns, "I don't want to go. -- Oh... Oh alright. But none of the others must be harmed." She finally looks at the Doctor, "Don't move any of you. Grandfather it was the only way, they knew I'd agree."

"My dear what..? Agree? To what?"

Susan walks to the doorway, "To go down with them to their planet. Otherwise we'll all be killed." She walks out of the room and joins the aliens the passage closes behind her.

Ian and Barbara mount a rescue, using darkness against the Sensorites to get Susan back. Once they have her again the Doctor confronts her about her actions, "What is all this? Setting yourself against me, mm?"

"I didn't, Grandfather."

He shakes a finger at her, "Oh I know you thought you were doing your best, child, in the circumstances, but I think that I'm a better judge of that."

Susan jumps right back at him, "I have opinions too!"

"My dear girl, the one purpose in growing old is to accumulate knowledge and wisdom. And to help other people."

Irritated, the dark haired young woman says, "So I'm to be treated like a silly little child?"

"If you behave like one, yes," he tells her.

"Oh look Grandfather, I understand the Sensorites. They're timid little people. Because their minds and mine can communicate sometimes they trust me."

The Doctor understands this, he does. And he knows she is growing up. But he's not ready to let her go yet – not quite yet, anyhow. "Yes, and I can assure you that we will make good use of that fact, but not without discussion. You will not make decisions on your own accord." At this Susan sighs. He tries to make her understand that they need to work together, that the wisdom of the situation means they stick together to solve this problem, "Now do you understand, is that quite clear? Well is it?"

She, however, needs to do this. "Look, I'm not saying that I'm as clever as you or anything, of course I'm not, but I won't be pushed aside!" Susan turns away, "I'm not a child anymore Grandfather, I'm not!"

He suspects that she's not been a child for a very long time already, having to do for herself as she did. But she's finally healed enough from the trauma of it to assert herself and let go of his coat tails, "Oh Susan, Susan..." He rubs her shoulders with affection and she turns to hug him.

The Sensorites come into the room, "Why do you make her unhappy? We can read the misery in her mind."

The Doctor bristles, "Yes, and it's a good thing that you can't read the anger in mine! In all the years my Granddaughter and I have been travelling we have never had an argument, and now you have caused one!"

Susan backs down at that, realizing that he's not trying to treat her as a child but that he is scared of her leaving, "Alright Grandfather, I'll do as you tell me."

"Good, good, now let's work together and see if we can't get the lock of the TARDIS back, mm?" He says to her.

The aliens speak up; "We have orders from the First Elder. He says we must listen to you, and to transmit your words to him."

The Doctor nods, "Very well, I'd like to talk to him face to face. I want to arrange the release of this spaceship. Tell him we're not pirates or plunderers, there is only one treasure we desire from him. Freedom!"

It is agreed that Maitland, Barbara, and one of the Sensorites will stay on the main ship while the others go down to the planet. It's also revealed that something is killing Sensorites although the aliens haven't discovered what. All they know is that it started after the first group of humans arrived there ten years ago. They are gone a good while, but in the end the lock is returned and the Sensorites express gratitude for the help that the Doctor has provided in solving the mystery of the deaths they suffered.

I'm overjoyed to have them back inside me, even if Susan looks glum. The Doctor responds to her with, "What's the matter my child?" He senses me in ways he'd not felt in many, many years. I tickle his soul with delight at the contact. He remembers now what it used to be like, before he became ill. He feels glum himself at the fact that this will fade, he'll loose it again, once they leave. And yet, he's eager to go.

"I had a talk with the senior Scientist just before we left. It seems that the Sense-sphere has an extraordinary number of ultra-high frequencies, so I won't be able to go on using thought transference," Susan says.

"Hoh-ho, it's rather a relief I think. After all, no-one likes an eavesdropper about do they? No I think you obviously have a gift in that direction and when we get home to our own place I think we should try and perfect it, mm?" He tries humor in the face of his own mounting depression. I try to reassure him, enveloping him in a feeling of home and love… Against a roundelled wall stands a mahogany plinth, upon which rests the prototype armillary sphere which was a present from Eratosthenes. The Doctor leans against the controls and strokes them, letting himself remember the things about his bond with me he'd forced himself to forget.

"Sometimes I feel I'd like to belong somewhere; not just be a wanderer... When will we get back Grandfather?" Susan asks him.

He makes a face at her, "I don't know my dear, this old ship of mine seems to be an aimless thing. However, we don't worry about it do we? Do you?" Maybe the TARDIS isn't as much of a home to her as it is to him… This saddens us both, as we know now that her time to leave is rapidly approaching.

"I'm not unhappy," she smiles at him.

"Good, good," he hugs her as he responds.

Barbara smiles as she steps into the Doctor's ship and feels the living pulsing vibrations of her. It's so very good to be home, she thinks. I mentally curl her in a welcoming embrace.

Ian even feels it, "Well, here we are."

"Oh at last! I very nearly went off without you!"

The history teacher says, "We were saying goodbye to John and Carol."

The Doctor switches on the scanner, "Hah, let's have a look at Maitland and see him off shall we?" They watch the rocketship as it leaves this region of space, finally.

"Well, at least they know where they're going," Ian says.

Really, it was the wrong thing to say, as the Doctor is still well and able to read exactly how the other man feels at the moment. "Implying I don't?" His glare could peel paint off the side of a bus.

Ian backpedals, "I didn't mean anything of the sort!"

But the Time Lord is still spotting things in the science teacher's mind, "So, you think I'm an incompetent old fool do you?"

"Now Doctor, I never said that!"

"Since you are so dissatisfied my boy, you can get off this ship. And the very next place we stop I shall take you off myself, and that is quite final!" He misses the worried look that Ian and Barbara share even as he programs the controls for Earth, 1963. Susan knows that the two teachers don't want to leave. So – she changes a setting behind his back as he storms around, "Carry on!" He could have gotten the two teachers home at this point, but for Susan's alteration. The Doctor doesn't notice. "There we are. Home."

"Doctor, we..." Barbara starts.

He cuts her off with a wave, really he's not cross with her, actually he's come to like her quite a bit and will miss her sorely, "It's all right. Chesterton made the position quite clear. Now, I have some work to do."

Susan chews on her lip, because they might be on Earth, and they might be near England, but they are not _in_ England and they are certainly not in 1963, "Grandfather, please..."

"Hush, child. Say your goodbyes and remember - we shall be leaving almost immediately."

"Do you have to be in such a hurry?" Ian asks. "Maybe you have succeeded. Maybe we are where you say we are. But, I remember an occasion when you took us home once before."

"Yes, and we met Marco Polo!" Laughs Barbara.

"Enough time has been wasted bringing you back, young man. I have the universe to explore. And the situation with Polo was entirely different circumstances! I'm rather tired of your insinuations that I am not master of this craft. Oh, I admit, it did develop a fault - a minor fault on one occasion, perhaps twice. But, nothing I couldn't control!"

"I know that. Of course you're in control. You're always in control. And I'm sure you could revisit us at any time," Ian says. "But you have your important researches to complete. You may not find the time. There's a chance that we won't meet again. Don't you think it would be better if we parted under more friendly circumstances, say, over a drink?"

"Yes. Yes, well perhaps, since you put it that way, an hour or two won't come amiss. Susan! Bring my stick will you?" The Doctor reluctantly agrees. Susan brings him the walking stick. "I'm going to see Ian and Barbara back home safely."

With that they check the scanner and see that there's a forest outside. "You know, it reminds me of a holiday I once took - In Somerset," Barbara says.

"Then I expect it is Somerset, my dear," the Time Lord says as he opens the door.

"Yes. Pity it's so dark. I can't see a sign of any buildings," Ian remarks.

The Doctor makes a face and marches out the door. The other three follow him at a bit of a distance. "Well done, Ian. I say, do you think we really are home?" Barbara asks the science teacher.

"I don't know. Won't take us long to find out, will it? Come on."

Susan just shakes her head, "If you were… Must you go?"

Barbara looks over at the young woman, "Susan, we've visited many places together - had lots of adventures. But you always knew we intended to return home when we could. I know it's hard to say goodbye but, one day, you'll understand why we had to."

Ian adds, "Don't you see, Susan? The longer we leave it, the harder it'll be."

The Doctor turns and locks the TARDIS door, "Well?"

"Well, those crops suggest a manor or farmhouse. It should be reasonably close," Barbara infers.

"It's very warm, isn't it? It must be summertime," Susan says. "Why aren't there any lights?"

Ian ponders this. If it were 1963 there would be lights about, "That's a point. It's dusk, and we've got a very good view from here."

"Well, towns and villages can be well-spaced, even in England," Barbara assures them.

The Doctor in a huff says, "Are we going to stand here talking all night, hmm?" He starts off and nearby one of the bushes rustles.

"Did you see what it was?" Barbara asks.

Ian is moving that direction, now. The Doctor comments, "Perhaps it was a rabbit. Do you know, Chesterton's getting quite jumpy these days. Young man like him shouldn't suffer from nerves."

There are muffled cries from the bush, "Well, that rabbit of yours is putting up quite a fight," Barbara says as she leans to the Doctor's shoulder. Ian walks back to the group holding onto a young boy by the scuff of the neck. The clothes he's wearing look like they have seen much better days. "Ian, you're hurting him!"

"Oh, no I'm not!" Ian protests as he lets go of the child.

After a bit of coaxing they discover that they are in France within a day's walk of Paris. By the child's clothing Ian suspects that they are off a bit in the timing. The weeks that they are gone proves that they've landed during the French Revolution, 1794 precisely. But eventually they do make it back to me. They tromp inside, all in period garb picked up in and around Paris. The Doctor has traded his normal Victorian attire for a heavy French uniform, although he's managed to reacquire his treasured ring and keep the stuff in his coat pockets. He settles down in a chair and begins removing the weighty coat, "Well, I can assure you, my dear Barbara, Napoleon would never have believed you." Whatever the troubled feelings were they seem to have been worked through now.

"Yes, Doctor, but ah, supposing we had written Napoleon a letter, telling him, you know, some of the things that were going to happen to him," Ian asks with curiosity.

Susan responds, "It wouldn't have made any difference, Ian. He would have forgotten it, or lost it, or thought it was written by a maniac."

"I suppose if we'd tried to kill him with a gun, the bullet would have missed him," Barbara says wryly.

"Well, it's hardly fair to speculate, is it? No, I'm afraid you belittle things." The Time Lord stands up and gets them into space. "Our lives are important, at least to us. But as we see, so we learn."

"And what are we going to see and learn next, Doctor?" Ian says. He's accepted this strange fate.

"Well, unlike the old adage, my boy, our destiny is in the stars, so let's go and search for it." Little do they know that they are about to have an adventure in 1963 unlike any other. It isn't my fault. I really did need some extensive repairs before the family put a stop to the efforts. But I suppose that in this case, this way is the safest…. "We're approaching a planet," the Doctor announces.

"Which one?" Ian asks.

"We shall soon see."

Barbara jerks away from the console where she'd been resting, "Ow. I burnt myself on the console."

"Oh, something overheating here. Just as well we're landing? Er, Susan, check the fault locator please."

Susan rushes to do so as Barbara wonders, "We're not going to blow up or anything are we?"

"Oh no, no, no, of course not. It's just, well, there we were in the late eighteenth century and I tried another frequency to sidestep the ship back into the middle of the twentieth century," He reassures her.

"There's something on QR18, Grandfather. And A14D," Susan tells him. Then a claxon goes off. She spins around and shouts, "YELLOW STANDBY! GRANDFATHER, THE DOORS, THEY'RE OPENING!"

"What's happening... Unbelievable! Chesterton close the doors please! We haven't materialised properly! Quickly! It's an emergency, close the doors! Quick! Use force!" Ian jumps for the doors but isn't strong enough alone to close them. Barbara joins him and a moment later Susan rushes over as well. Between the three of them and the Doctor on the lever they manage to close the doors.

"Is everything alright?" Barbara moves over to the visibly shaken old man.

He nods, "We're just landing." He then begins mumbling about the various readings, unsure of the possible effects of what has happened. Ian and Barbara both try to find out if he's really ok. "Oh please don't bother me!" The Doctor finally tells them before addressing Susan, "Susan, go back to the fault locator, and I want you to check everything, child you understand, EVERYTHING!"

Eventually Susan says, "Grandfather everything's alright! There isn't a fault anywhere, not even on yellow standby!"

He frowns at both the constant questions from Ian and Barbara and the odd sudden information that there's not a fault anywhere. "Oh don't go on with these futile questions! Please, can't you understand, can't you see?! Neither of you can understand what I'm talking about I can s-see that! But there must be something wrong, Susan! I shall have to check that fault locator myself to make sure, excuse me..."

Susan walks back over as the Time Lord focuses on the fault indicator. "Oh I do wish he wouldn't talk in riddles! What happened just then? Well, at least we seem to be alright." Barbara says to her.

Ian agrees with this and adds, "Susan perhaps you can help us?"

Susan's not even sure she fully understands all of the quirks about time travel, "I just know that the most dangerous moment is at the point of materialization."

"Nothing's ever happened to us before," Barbara says.

"Well the doors have never opened like that before."

The Doctor walks back to the controls, "Happily no harm's been done. It's most puzzling. Oh my dear Barbara was I rude to you just now? If so, I'm so sorry. I-I always forget the niceties under pressure. Please forgive me."

She shakes this off, "There's nothing to forgive."

"Thank you. Hm.. Hah! Well I suppose everything's alright. And yet, er... See the temperature there is perfectly...it's quite safe to go outside. Oh Susan, just turn on the scanner a minute, let's try and see where we are." Susan goes to turn on the scanner and the screen shatters from the inside out. Thick smoke belches out into the room. While Barbara is shocked and Ian is amused the Doctor takes it more as a clue, "Did you notice the way it blew out? Like, like ehh...something too big for it's frame!" He gestures about for a moment, "And yet, I don't know... That can't be right!"

"It was like an internal explosion, Doctor," Barbara says. "We must go outside and look. You said it was quite safe..."

"Perhaps you need a new picture tube?" Ian suggests. "What do we do now Doctor? Take the scanner out and strip it down?"

"Oh no, no, no, dear boy. No, it's most puzzling of course, but now don't know what's behind those doors." He seems to drift off in thought, "Yes...I wonder why the..? Well, we must see."

"Shall I open the doors Grandfather?"

"Er, yes please Susan. But all of you, cautiously please!" but in spite this as soon as the doors are open both Barbara and Susan disappear through them.

Ian thinks he's found the right question to ask, "Doctor, what made the doors open before?"

"The space pressure was far too great whilst we were materializing. The strange thing is that we all came out of it unscathed! Hah, it's, it's most puzzling, it's a big mystery my boy, come along..." He leads Ian out to where the women are. It doesn't take them long to discover how they have been impacted by the doors opening. Both I and my crew have been miniaturized. Both the Doctor and Susan come to the conclusion at the same time. But the dead insets and other clues serve to keep them from leaving straight away. Before they can leave however they are caught up in making sure a murder is accounted for and that a new pesticide is prevented from distribution. Eventually they do return, carrying a large seed wrapped in the Doctor cloak and Barbara who is unconscious. The Doctor has worked out how to fix this problem, "We've got to repeat exactly wha.. the things that happened to us when we landed."

Ian places Barbara in a chair, "Is there anything I can do?"

"Yes. That seed over there by the chair. Take it over to the table so that we can all see it. And keep that wrapped round it when you do it." The Doctor indicates the seed and his cloak, which he places on the table across the room. The Doctor sets to work on the controls. The ship dematerializes. Ian points to the seed and exclaims loudly. The Doctor shushes him, "Shh-sh. I think it's working. Splendid, I think it's working, my boy!"

"Doctor! Doctor I... Doctor, look at that seed!" Ian is practically bouncing.

The once giant seed is shrinking. "Yes yes, we've done it! Yes, ha-ha ha-ha, we've done it, yes!" The Doctor is very joyful.

"Doctor, it's incredible, that seed, it's completely vanished!" Ian insists.

"No, no my dear boy, no. Hah-ha!" he picks up the seed from the cloak, "Look, can you see, it hasn't vanished at all!"

Barbara begins to stir, "Mm..mm, I'm so thirsty."

Susan says, "Barbara?" and offers her a glass of water, "There you are, drink that."

The water disappears rather quickly, "Oh, I'd no idea water could taste so good. Doctor what happened in the laboratory, I don't remember much after the explosion."

"Well I'm happy to say our plan worked, and we didn't have to fire the laboratory. But we did attract attention. Do you know that a policeman came into the room just as I was about to climb down that pipe?"

"Oh good! Now what about us, can you get us back to normal?"

At that the Doctor shows her the seed, "Yes, there's your answer my dear."

"Grandfather, -- is that the seed you brought in with you?"

"The same seed!"

Susan laughs, and Barbara states, "Then we are back to normal!"

"Completely my dear!" the Doctor then says, "Now before I check up and see where we are, I suggest you all go and have a good scrub mm? Go-on, off you go!" Ian, Barbara and Susan express relief and then almost bounce out of the room like children caught playing in mud on a Sunday. The Doctor looks up at the scanner, which has repaired itself and frowns at the murky static that it's showing. "Oh dear-dear-dear-dear-dear, now isn't that irritating mm?! It repairs that wretched thing and now look at it, I can't see a thing!" The sounds shift slightly, indicating that the TARDIS is landing. "Wait I... I think we're beginning to materialize, perhaps I shall know now where we are, mm? Hm-hm..." But the screen continues to keep its secrets. No matter what he tries the screen stubbornly refuses to give a clear image. "Mmm! It's not clear, it's not clear at all! What has gone wrong?"

Unknown to the Doctor I've detected what might be the greatest threat the Earth has ever faced. I'll not be much help here but I know he will be. He must be. Moments before I materialized a one-time human passed this way and threw himself into the river. This will be Earth's fate, unless they can stop it. I've arrived in this bleak future London silently. That should be a clue that things are very bad. Inside the control room Ian is staring at the foggy image I'm able to provide, "Well Doctor, where are we now then?"

Beside him Barbara wishes, "Somewhere nice and quiet, I hope."

"Oh yes! Let's have a holiday!" Susan says to her Grandfather.

He ignores her, "Take a look for yourselves." Neither Barbara nor Ian can make out anything. Susan turns to the readouts with a frown. The Doctor says, "Well, it looks like moving water to me. It might be a river...somewhere. I don't know, hmm! What's the reading Susan, hmm?" He moves to her side as she answers.

"Radiation nil, Oxygen normal, pressure normal. Grandfather, it's an earth reading."

This makes the teachers very happy, but I know they won't be when they realize that they are two centuries off the mark for their era and how drastically things have changed in that short time span. "Well I...I don't want to boast but we might be somewhere in London, hmm?" the Doctor tells them.

Ian laughs, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go and have a look!"

Barbara eagerly says, "Come on, open the doors."

With her grandfather's permission Susan works the lever and the doors open. We have in deed come to London… Only this future is not one that they will be happy with. I sadly watch them leave.

Once outside Ian says, "Barbara, we made it! We're here!"

The Doctor listens to the quiet, feeling unsettled by it. He pushes the sensation away, "Well, there we are, back home, your planet." He laughs.

"You brought us a long way round, Doctor."

At this the Time Lord laughs again, "More by good luck than judgement, hmm?" His humor carries him through a few moments until he notices the conditions that they are in the midst of, "Oh, what a horrible mess."

"Are we down by the docks?" Barbara asks.

"Heeellllooooo!" Ian tries with his hands cupped to help the sound travel. After a heavy pause of silence he says, "Pretty deserted. Probably Sunday."

Suspiciously the Doctor wonders, "It's uncanny. I wonder which era we've landed in? We might have landed in the early 1900's or the, twenty-fifth century."

Barbara smiles at him, "Well, its still London, anyway." Ian agrees with her.

Susan climbs up on the wall to get a better look and is warned to be careful. The Doctor mumbles to himself, "Yes, that's the word I was looking for - decay. Hmm. Most odd, most odd." This gets Barbara's attention and at her inquiry he states, "Well you take this bridge now. It isn't an easy task is it? Look at all this neglect all over the place. Been abandoned, all of it."

Susan, from the top of the wall informs the others, "I still can't see much. There's not a sign of any people any...ahh!" she tumbles down and injures her ankle.

"Susan!" Ian scolds. Both the Doctor and Barbara head over to where Susan has fallen.

"Oh, I think she's just shaken," Barbara says.

But the Doctor is angered, "Yes, she's always dashing about, aren't you? You're far too curious." Just at that moment the rubble overhead comes down and the group scrambles to get out of the way. Once the dust has settled the Doctor notices something very bad, "The ship, Chesterton, the ship!" A huge latticed metal support is blocking the door to the TARDIS. They have no way of leaving unless they can find some help to move it. As Ian moves to check it out the Doctor warns, "Don't go too near, my boy, it isn't safe."

"The whole bridge has collapsed!" the male teacher says. "We're going to need help to shift this."

"Yes, well it's all crumbling. It's going to be very difficult. But remember we're in London. Well, the, the, the people, they'll all be curious. They'll want to know why we're trying to break into a police box. Hmm?"

Ian looks at the block again, "You know, it's primarily...this girder. What I need is an acetylene torch."

The Doctor laughs, "Oh, my dear boy, you can't just whisk up men and material out of the thin air, now can you? Hmm?" At this Ian points out the warehouse and the Doctor retorts, "You know, my dear boy, I never fail to be impressed by your optimism. You can't move that by sheer brute force. You were right - you need a cutting flame."

Ian says quietly, "I know one thing for sure, Doctor. We'd better make sure we can get back into the ship before we start looking around. Just in case there's trouble."

This gains the Doctor's approval; "It's intelligent, hmm. That's good." After a moment he turns back to Ian, "But you know, young man, I have a feeling, well call it intuition if you like, I don't believe we're anywhere near your time, the 1960's." Ian expresses his desire for the intuition to be wrong. The Time Lord looks at him, "Yes, well ask yourself. Here we are standing by the Thames and, er, we've been here quite a while, how long, what, ooh, quarter of an hour, twenty minutes? Hmm? What have we heard? Hmm? Nothing, precisely nothing. No sound of birdsong. No voices. No sound of shipping. Not even the chimes of old Big Ben. Hmm! It's uncanny, hmm? Uncanny."

Ian announces that he and the Doctor are going to check out the warehouse. Susan, because of her ankle cannot walk and Barbara stays with her. While the men are gone Barbara does her best to treat the swell on Susan's ankle with a wet handkerchief. When she returns to Susan's side with the wet cloth she says, "You know, we're not in our time in London, Susan. I know London. It isn't like this. The river's too quiet and...there's no sound of traffic. There's a strange poster on the wall back there. Just doesn't make sense."

"Well, off we go again!" then she spots the look on Barbara's face, "I'm sorry Barbara. Is it selfish to want us all to stay together?"

The older woman laughs lightly, "No, of course not." She then decides that there's not enough moisture on the cloth and heads back to the river to soak it again. By the time she comes back there's no sign of Susan, "Susan!?" Gunfire rattles around her. Alarmed she calls again, "Susan!?" A roughly dressed and dirty fellow drops down to her level. "Who are you?"

The man hushes her, "Do you want to get killed?"

"Where's Susan? What have you done with her?"

"Do you mean the girl? Tyler's got her. Well come on. We've got to get out of here. Quick! Follow me!"

He takes off. Barbara is torn. She doesn't want to leave the Doctor and Ian, but she feels responsible for Susan. Finally she calls, "Wait!" as she dashes off after him.

After a short time the Doctor and Ian return to the location where they left the women. "Barbara! Susan!" Ian calls. Then he says to the Doctor, "Why? Why do they do it?" He hits a metal drum and sits on the steps.

"Oh well, it might have been something to do with that gunfire we heard across the river. Lets wait and see, hmm?" He settles down next to Ian.

After a bit Ian says, "You know, I want to get away from here."

This surprises the Doctor, "Yes, but, aren't you even a bit curious, after all, it's your city, you know. Do you no want, don't you want to know what's happened to it, hmm?"

"No." The science teacher sits a second more then gets up and paces, "No, I don't want to know. Oh, where the devil are those two?" They wait… and wait. Finally Ian says, "High tide."

The Doctor responds, "Evening. How filthy that water is, hmm?"

Ian then spots the poster, "Doctor! Doctor, come and have a look at this!"

"Huh! Stupid!" He continues, "Stupid place to put a poster. Right under a bridge where nobody can read it or see it."

"I don't know. If you have a body to get rid of, I should think it's a very good place to come to. 'Bring out your dead.'"

The Doctor frowns, "Hmm? Plague? That's got me worried. Very worried. That suggestion of yours about the plague: supposing one of them's been in that water? They're bound to be contaminated with some sort of bacteria, hmm? Anyway, let us go further afield, come along, come along." The walk around the TARDIS and the Doctor offers, "Now I suggest that you go up that way, then I go..." But he's cut off by the three robomen that are in their path. Another of the controlled creatures appears on the top of the flight of steps.

Ian says, "We could try running."

The Doctor points at the water, " -- down there... hmm?"

"Do you mean swim?" He gets a slight nod. "Well hang on, we haven't tried talking yet." The robomen have grouped up by the time Ian turns to them, "What do you want?"

The response he gets is, "Stoooppp!"

"No good, listen, when I give the word, turn and dive in the water," Ian says. But as they back to the water there's a familiar drone, and they turn to see a Dalek gliding out of the River Thames. This shocks both men into frozen positions. The creature notes them and then addresses the Robomen, "Why have the human beings been allowed to get so near the river?"

"No explanation." The Robomen state.

"Where is the robo-patrol for this section?"

"Not known."

The Dalek orders, "You will take his place until he is found. The human beings are to be taken to landing area one."

Ian and the Doctor ignore the Robomen for the moment, even as they step up behind them. Ian says, "Daleks on Earth! Doctor, how did this happen?"

The Doctor doesn't know, "Leave this to me, dear boy." Then he turns to the Dalek, "I think you'd better let us go."

"We do not release prisoners. We are the masters of the Earth."

"Not for long." The Time Lord tells it.

"Obey us or die!"

"Die? And just who are you to condemn us to death? Hmm?" He directs his next comment to Ian, "I think we'd better pit our wits against them and defeat them!"

"Stop! I can hear you. I have heard many similar words...from leaders of your different races. All of them were destroyed. I warn you: resistance is useless."

"Resistance is useless? Surely you don't expect all the people to welcome you with open arms."

The Dalek reacts with anger, something new, "We have already conquered Earth!"

"Conquered the Earth! You poor pathetic creatures. Don't you realise, before you attempt to conquer the Earth, you will have to destroy all living matter!"

This drives the Dalek into a fury, "Take them! Take them!" as the robomen pin their arms the Dalek chants, "We are the masters of Earth. We are the masters of Earth. We are the masters of Earth!"

It only takes a week for the Doctor to come through with his promise that the Daleks are not so much masters of the Earth as they thought. Once he returns to his time ship and the debris are cleared away he tells those he's met "It's to them that you must dedicate your next task - the rebuilding of the Earth...and I'm sure you're going to make a great success of it."

"You sound as if you're leaving?" the man he's talking with says.

The Doctor just smiles. He is, in deed, leaving. "Just the beginning...just the beginning." He then spots his granddaughter and walks over to her, "All alone, eh, Susan, Hmm?"

"I was thinking. It will be nice if we..."

But he cuts her off, "Ahh! Yes, I afraid we've...had so little time for that sort of thing lately. Er, eh, eh, well, I'm sorry, Susan." And he is, too. He knows this is her time and her place. He doesn't want to do it, but knows he must. "Yes, you little monkey! You know, since you've been away from that school, you seem to have got yourself thoroughly disorganized, haven't you? Hmm? Hmm." He hugs her, his way of saying goodby without saying it. "Yes, you need taking in hand. Well, er, I, I er, think I must check up on the ship, er...if you don't mind, er..." But it's not by him that she needs as her guide anymore.

"I...I'd better clear up my cupboard - it's in a dreadful muddle. Won't be long..." She calls as he walks away.

It's the last time she'll see him. she just doesn't know it yet. He slips inside the TARDIS. Unknown to the pair their conversation is heard inside the ship. David, the man she does need walks over to her. Barbara drags Ian into the ship, away from the pair. Susan starts to fiddle with her TARDIS key. David says, "Susan?"

"Yes, David?" she says shyly.

"Please stay - please stay here with me."

"I can't stay, David. I don't belong to this time."

He takes her by the shoulders, "But I love you, Susan. And I want you to marry me."

"You...you see, David, I...Grandfather's old now. He...he needs me." This causes David to turn away. "Oh, don't make me choose between you and him, please!"

"But you told me! You said that you'd never known the security of living in one place and one time. Look, you said it was something you always longed for. Well, I'm giving you that, Susan. I'm giving you a place, a time, an identity."

This causes Susan to move away and to burst into tears, "No David!" Then she realizes that her grandfather still has her shoe, "I've lost my shoe..." this causes her to laugh a bit. Susan rushes back to David, "Oh David, I do love you! I do, I do, I do!" Meanwhile the Doctor quietly crosses over to the console and closes the doors. Ian and Barbara just watch him. The sound of them closing causes Susan to dash to the ship, "Grandfather!"

Sadly the Doctor toggles a switch so that she can hear him, "Listen, Susan, please. I've double-locked the doors. You can't get in. Now move back, child, where I can see you." she glances back at David and then moves into his arms, "During all the years, I've been taking care of you, you in return have been taking care of me."

She takes the key from around her neck, "Grandfather, I belong with you!"

"Not any longer, Susan. You're still my grandchild and always will be. But now, you're a woman too. I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you'll be able to find those roots. Live normally like any woman should do. Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David. And not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan, goodbye, my dear." And with that he forces himself to move his time ship away from 2164 and the last of his family. I feel his pain like a breach in my walls. It hurts so much for him to do this, but back on the Sense-Sphere he saw this was coming. And now that it has he knows he must never look back. If they meet again it will be because she finds him, not the other way around.


End file.
